SERE ensures coalition forces unite

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Mercedes Taylor
  • 19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
During Green Flag 16-06, international partnerships played a vital role in mission accomplishment. In one 24-hour iteration of the Green Flag 16-06 exercise, service members from the Royal Australian Air Force provided essential air support to an aircrew from a RAAF C-130J. The crew airdropped critical supplies to a group of U.S. Air Force Airmen from the 61st Airlift Squadron at Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark. The 61st AS Airmen found themselves grounded behind enemy lines, as part of the exercise scenario. The aircrew navigated through the woods with no radio transmission but still managed to signal the RAAF C-130J overhead. The RAAF crew airdropped heliboxes with supplies and transferred information to the 61st AS Airmen. The "stranded crew" successfully maneuvered through thick woods, brush and marsh to their extraction point, where the team was recovered by U.S. Army soldiers. Green Flag 16-06 provided realistic, tactical-level, joint combat airlift training for multiple nations. The goal of the exercise was to boost successful communication and relationships built between joint and coalition forces to improve airlift capabilities.