Warrior Day showcases Hickam's 'total force' capabilities

by Staff Sgt. Alexander Martinez
15th Wing Public Affairs

1/10/2014 - JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM -- 

Air Force active duty, National Guard and Reserve Airmen participated in the Inaugural Total Force Integration Warrior Day Jan. 10, conducting in-air training that tested the cooperation and capabilities of multiple base agencies.

 

F-22 Raptors, KC-135 Stratotankers and C-17 Globemasters III from the 15th Wing and Hawaii National Guard's 154th Wing participated in the training day, testing their collective communication and mission execution skills.

 

"The objective is to get us talking to each other, and to learn each other's capabilities," said Lt. Col. Rob Jackson, 19th Fighter Squadron commander. "We'll be able to see our strengths and weaknesses so if we ever needed to, we can fight together effectively."

 

Jackson said he came up with the idea to conduct Warrior Day here because he's had similar training at other bases that was very effective, and highlighted the important ability of multiple base agencies working together.

 

"The more we train together, the more we can demonstrate that we can get places quickly and quietly, and when we get there, we are prepared to execute our mission," Jackson said.

 

The Warrior Day training schedule began Jan. 9 with a pre-mission brief led by Lt. Col. Mark Ladtkow, 199th Fighter Squadron commander and the Warrior Day mission commander. The brief brought together all the participants of the training, covered all projected scenarios, and provided an overview of the day's events.

 

Col. Terry Scott, 15th Wing vice commander, was in attendance and said he hoped the participants would get the most out of the important training.

 

"There are a lot of moving parts to training like this, and I hope you all work together and learn from this great experience," Scott said to the audience.

 

The scenarios involved mock regional incidents in need of U.S. support including air support, special forces posturing and equipment movements, to name a few.

 

Jackson said, as opposed to other well known Pacific Air Forces training exercises, this Warrior Day was able to take the best of those exercises and conduct the training here on a much smaller and cost-effective scale.

 

Some training simulations included combat maneuvers with the F-22s, troop and equipment movements of the C-17s, and refueling operations of the KC-135s.

 

Maj. Nuke Nagatani, an F-22 pilot with the 199th Fighter Squadron, said he thinks the training was effective, especially for some of the newer pilots.

 

"We were able to take our youngest F-22 wingman out into this difficult training mission and it was good lessons learned for him," Nagatani said. "This was the most robust training he has seen."

 

The day ended with an afternoon of post-mission briefings that brought together all the participants of the day, and covered the day's successes and failures.

 

"The post-mission brief is where the lessons are learned," Nagatani said. "That's when [participants] can fess up to the small mistakes they made during the training. They might think the mistake they made was contained to their cockpit, but in the bigger picture, it can snowball into something bigger down the road, so it's good to get those mistakes out of the way now."

 

Jackson said he hopes Hickam has more opportunities to conduct these kinds of training days in the future, and envisions including more regional players.

 

"My vision is that Warrior Day will become a more joint [branch] training exercise that doesn't only include Air Force assets." Jackson said. "That type of joint training ties right in with Air-Sea battle concepts and Joint maritime operations. It's always very important to have those capabilities."