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Furious Moose involves 13 Charleston C-17s in large training mission

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Rashard Coaxum
  • 315th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. --  A multi-ship formation of C-17 Globemaster III aircraft took off today from Joint Base Charleston, S.C., to conduct a multi-plane airdrop training mission.

The mission, named Exercise Furious Moose, was a joint total-force effort between JB Charleston's active duty airmen of 437th Airlift Wing and the Reserve airmen of the 315th AW.

The mission included completing a variety of mission readiness training objectives for aircrews, maintenance and support crews.

Col. James Fontanella, the 315th Airlift Wing commander and a pilot for the training mission, expressed how critical the joint operation is to not only both wings, but the Air Force's mission capability as a whole.

"The goal of the training mission achieves two main things - total force integration of associated partners and operations training," Fontanella said. "This is a great opportunity to be able to get both wings together and accomplish more than 750 training events over the course of the mission, which will all be done in one day."

The large formation operation tasked 13 aircraft and their crews with a several training objectives which included airdrops, aerial refueling and low-level tactical training. The mission route took the aircraft over North Field near Orangeburg, S.C., where the formation dropped cargo loads which simulated delivering food and supplies to natural disaster victims as well as the delivery of supplies to troops on the ground who may be in austere conditions or in hostile territories.

The next leg of the trip took the formation over parts of North Carolina, where the aerial refueling objective was completed, before heading back to JB Charleston.

It's been more than two years since the last multi-plane joint training operation was held here at JB Charleston, but being able to combine forces with the active duty helps improve the mission capabilities and readiness for airmen in both wings, Fontanella said.

Master Sgt. Jack Smythe - a 25-year-veteran of the military and a loadmaster with the Reserve wing's 701st Airlift Squadron at JB Charleston - also expressed the same sentiment about how important the training is to both wings.

"We don't normally get a chance to fly in such a large formation with this many aircraft. We usually train with two to three aircraft once or twice a month," Smythe said. "But this allows us to come together and complete training that would normally take us much longer to complete."

Smythe - one of the loadmasters on the flight - has logged more than 7,000 hours of total flight time and more than 2,000 hours of combat flight time. The training is critical and important, Smythe said. We have to be ready anytime we are called on.

"We are required to maintain proficiency in a number of different training areas," Smythe said. "This mission - which simulates personnel delivery drops, container deliveries and heavy item delivery like tanks or other large items - allows us to complete that required training with efficiency."

Although the mission is not in response to a real-world event, mission readiness at a moment's notice is crucial, Fontanella said. The total force has to be ready to answer its nations call.

"We have the ability move large amounts of people, cargo or vehicles in the event of a crisis," he said. "So it's important that we have to be operationally ready because this simulates what would happen in the real world during a real crisis situation."