Reserve Airmen get active in readiness exercise Published March 10, 2016 By Senior Airman Lauren Pitts Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Public Affairs GULFPORT, M.S. -- The 514th Air Mobility Wing has been fully immersed in the mission and operations of Operational Readiness Exercise 03-16 in Gulfport, Mississippi, March 5 through 12, 2016. The ORE, hosted by the 305th AMW, is the first time the wings have exercised with the 87th Air Base Wing and 621st Contingency Response Wing all together. "What a fantastic opportunity to be able to take part in this," said Col. Cynthia Wong, 514th Mission Support Group commander, who had yet to interface with the 621st CRW before this exercise. As the only reserve-component in the exercise, Airmen from the 514th AMW are not only pulling their weight, but gaining valuable lessons learned from working with their active-duty counterparts - and joint base neighbors. For example, members from the 621st and 514th's aerial port squadrons execute their mission's differently, Wong continued. Because of the time constraint for training, the 621st APS approaches training with an entirely different methodology. "Our guys really know their one area and have clearly defined operating lanes," Wong said of her Airmen. "It was really interesting for us to see the individual 621st porters with multiple areas of expertise making them interchangeable when necessary." However, aerial porters are not the only Airmen the 514th sent to participate in the exercise. The reserve wing pitched in leadership, aircrews, maintainers, fuel technicians, personnel, logistics, medical technicians, and wing inspection team members - all of whom are eager to give all they've got to the total force mission. "From an outside perspective, I feel like the reserves are perceived in many different ways," said Maj. Gwendolyn Soden, 514th Director of Operations and wing inspection team director, who believes that it is easy to misunderstand the role of reservists due their part-time nature. "Our Citizen-Airmen serve differently--in the precious downtime between civilian jobs and family time--and we bring a lot of experience and a unique perspective to the table," Soden explained. "That's really what I want people to capture about us in this exercise." Wong also gave credit to her Airmen who answered the call to support positions last minute, who were only notified of the ORE earlier this year. "A few months may seem like enough time to active duty service members," Wong said. "But in the reserves, our people have civilian jobs that require advance notice and scheduling many months out. I really have to commend the 40 volunteers we had who stepped up to fill the gaps." Throughout the week, Airmen have blended training and procedures - seamlessly coming together to complete the mission. "You would never know they belonged to separate units," said Soden. "They work like they've been one team for months."