HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii –
HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii --More than 1,300 servicemembers from the United States, France and Australia are gathering in The Last Frontier to participate in Red Flag-Alaska 07-1, scheduled from April 5-21.
Active-duty and Reserve servicemembers from McGuire are among the participants.
"We're going up there to do an exercise with the fighter community and provide tanker support for real-world exercises," said Capt. Shane Butler, 78th Air Refueling Squadron, Red Flag-Alaska flight commander.
Red Flag-Alaska, a series of Pacific Air Forces commander-directed field training exercises for U.S Forces, provides joint offensive counter-air, interdiction, close air support, and large force employment training in a simulated combat environment. These exercises are conducted on the Pacific Alaskan Range Complex with air operations flown out of Eielson and Elmendorf Air Force Bases.
Air forces for Red Flag-Alaska 07-1 include participants from the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, France and Australia. Units are organized as an air expeditionary wing at Eielson with a subordinate air expeditionary group at Elmendorf.
"Red Flag-Alaska exercises enable aviation units to sharpen their combat skills by flying a minimum of 10 simulated combat sorties in a realistic threat environment and provides unique opportunities to help integrate various forces into joint, coalition, and bilateral training from simulated forward operating bases," said Lt. Gen. Chip Utterback, commander of 13th Air Force. "Additionally, the training allows us to exchange tactics, techniques, and procedures and improve interoperability."
McGuire's involvement in Red Flag-Alaska is the form of four KC-10s - two flown by Reserve crews and two flown by active-duty crews.
"(We're) glad to be going up there and working with the active-duty," said Maj. Randolph Hack, 76th Air Refueling Squadron and Red Flag-Alaska mission commander. "It should be challenging over the next three weeks. It should be a lot of good training for everybody too."
The Reserve crews will be returning this week, and replaced by new Reserve crews who will finish the exercise.
Following Red Flag-Alaska 07-1, a second period will be conducted May 31- June 15, followed by a third iteration scheduled July 12-27.
-- Senior Airman Justin Weaver, 354th Fighter Wing Public Affairs, and Angel Lopez,
305th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs, contributed to this article.