Multinational training vital to Combined Resolve II

by Senior Airman Gustavo Castillo
52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs

5/20/2014 - SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany -  -- U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft and Air National Guard personnnel from the 124th Fighter Wing out of Gowen Field, Idaho, returned to Europe May 16, 2014, to support Exercise Combined Resolve II.

Air National Guard Airmen piloting the aircraft were from the 124th FW out of Gowen Field, Idaho.

"Exercise Combined Resolve II is a U.S. Army Europe-directed multinational exercise involving 15 NATO and European partner nations in the Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels area from May 15 to June 30," said Christian Marquardt, Joint Multinational Training Command public affairs spokesman from Emporia, Kan. "This is an interoperability exercise working on partnership tasks, because this is the way we are going to fight in the future."

U.S. Army Europe invited the 124th FW to support the joint multinational exercise. The A-10 pilots use close-air-support procedures and operations to assist ground forces from NATO allies.

"This is the same mission that we do back home," said U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Kristen Daigle, officer in charge of intelligence from Boise, Idaho. "We provide close air support for friendlies on the ground when they are receiving effective fire from the enemy. The A-10s will roll in and try to get the enemy off their back."

The A-10s will support ground troops participating in force-on-force maneuver training at the U.S. Army's Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany.

The 124th FW's 190th Fighter Squadron pilots, also based at Gowen Field, will fly A-10 missions providing air power to U.S. and allied ground forces who are fielding the most modern versions of the Army's M1A2 Abrams tanks and M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles.

Approximately 100 Air National Guard Airmen accompanied the aircraft in support of the exercise.

"I think it's going to be great," Daigle said. "Both for our pilots and for those troops on the ground. It sounds like we will be working with Joint Terminal Attack Controllers who have not done a lot of calls for close air support. It will be good training for them and for our pilots working with JTACS who do not use English as a primary language."

The nations involved in the exercise are Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and the United States.