TRANSCOM assesses capabilities during exercise Published July 29, 2015 By Staff Sgt. Gustavo Gonzalez 621st Contingency Response Wing Public Affairs JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- A joint, multi-unit exercise was held here to test Joint Task Force - Port Opening capabilities July 18-24, involving nearly 160 service members. Airmen and Soldiers came from Travis Air Force Base, California and Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia to work with the 621st Contingency Response Wing based here to participate in Exercise Turbo Distribution 15-7. Members of the Defense Logistics Agency also participated. During TD 15-7, U.S. Transportation Command assessed JTF-PO's ability to amass and distribute cargo during humanitarian relief operations. Throughout the exercise, JTF-PO established a forward distribution node for logistics flow in support of a notional State Department humanitarian relief mission. DLA facilitated onward movement of the cargo beyond the forward node. Airmen from the 621st CRW located at Travis AFB and JBMDL train quarterly with Rapid Port Opening Element units from JBLE to maintain proficiency and develop interoperability. "Anytime that you can practice what you go do in an operation with those that you would go do it with and train together, that's the value of this," said Col. Rhett Champagne, 821 CRG commander and JTF-PO commander for the exercise. "There are two CRGs that will share the alert with three RPOEs, so we are going to see each other again and again over a two-year period. You see the same faces so when you actually go out on the field and work together, you know each other's tactics, techniques, procedures, processes." Senior Airman Ralph Hoeflich, 821st CRG security forces defender, has deployed in the past year with a JTF-PO team and says TD exercises are similar to what they experience in a real-world contingency. "Our job is very similar as far as perimeter, flight line security and setting up our entry control points," he said. "TD helps us prepare because we practice exactly what we need to do in a deployment. Working with the Army helps us understand what they have to get done and what we have to get done and how to work together to do it." The 621st CRW specializes in rapidly establishing hubs for cargo distribution operations worldwide in contested, permissive, or uncertain environments. Previous deployments include humanitarian assistance support missions in Liberia, Haiti, Pakistan, Japan and contingency deployments in support of military operations in Eastern Europe, Southwest Asia and South America.