Airmen prepare to train with Baltic allies

  • Published
  • By Capt. Denise Haeussler
  • 442d Fighter Wing Public Affairs
WHITEMAN AFB, Missouri --  Fifteen years into the 21st Century, the U.S. Air Force, Reserve and National Guard have moved away from training as three separate forces and have moved toward Total Force Integration where all work and train together to form one team.  One Air Force Reserve unit is taking that concept to another level.

Air Force Reservists from the 442d Fighter Wing, along with three Air National Guard units, will travel to Estonia August through September 2015 to train with the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian armed forces as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve.
According to the Department of Defense's official website, OAR is America's commitment to European security. The U.S. is demonstrating its continued commitment to collective security through a series of action designed to reassure NATO allies and partners of America's dedication to ensuring peace and stability in the Baltic region.

"The purpose of this exercise is to give overall reassurance of our Baltic Allied nations and the presence of Americans in the region," said Maj. David Kirkendall, a 442d Fighter Wing A-10 Thunderbolt pilot, and project officer for the wing's piece of the exercise. "We are supporting the freedom of these sovereign nations."

Kirkendall said the 442d FW will be doing roughly three weeks of flying A-10 Thunderbolt II's for air to ground training and about one third of that will be air to air training. He said air to ground is training in close air support with ground troops, and air to air is training with other aircraft.

"Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian ground controllers have to complete annual training requirements for techniques, tactics and procedures, and it's an opportunity to work with the world's greatest close air support platform," said Kirkendall. "It's a chance for us to have interoperability with their forces, and it's valuable for them to have A-10 Thunderbolt's to train with."

According to Kirkendall, the main body of the exercise will be mostly operations and maintenance troops from the 442d Fighter Wing, but many other support units will be going as well; to include air and ground safety, public affairs, logistics, security forces and medical personnel.

"This is considered a Fighter Training Deployment for the 442d FW in support of OAR," said Kirkendall.  "It will be taking training to the next level with Total Force Integration."