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Air Force, FBI partner in Patriot Hoover exercise

  • Published
AGUADILLA, Puerto Rico --  Airmen and FBI people from across the United States started deploying to here April 29 for Patriot Hoover.

The large-scale, six-day air mobility exercise involved several Air Force Reserve Command airlift control flights, flying units and aerial port units, as well as Puerto Rico Air and Army National Guard troops and FBI rapid deployment teams and a logistics support unit.

Exercise organizers said Patriot Hoover was the largest and most diverse exercise of its kind.

Eighty FBI agents, technicians and supervisors along with 27 of their vehicles and trailers from Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Washington were put on military transport aircraft and flown to Puerto Rico. Also participating in the airlift were 100 Airmen, their vehicles and equipment and 100 guardsmen from the Puerto Rico National Guard.

Part of the operation involved establishing three forward operating locations at Andrews Air Force Base, Md.; Homestead Air Reserve Base, Fla.; and Aguadilla.

The fast-paced training included military support to civil agencies, equipment preparation, air deployment planning and execution, command and control, communication, interoperability, joint inspection, engine running offloads and nighttime operations.

"Our job in the tanker airlift control element community is to train people in different units who need to get to places around the world by air, validate their air mobility and put them on the road in the smoothest, safest fashion," said Lt. Col. Harold Kaplan, who oversees command and control operations for Air Force Reserve Command at Robins AFB, Ga.

C-17, C-5, KC-135 and C-130 aircraft took part in the exercise along with Air Force Reserve Command airlift control flights from the 452nd Air Mobility Wing, March ARB, Calif.; 433rd Airlift Wing, Lackland AFB, Texas; 315th AW, Charleston AFB, S.C.; 446th AW, McChord AFB, Wash.; and the 512th AW, Dover AFB, Del.

The FBI office in Los Angeles has worked with the 452nd Airlift Control Flight at March ARB for the past 10 years, but this was the first time that the exercise was expanded to involve FBI teams from across the country.

Colonel Kaplan credits the leadership of the FBI and the Air Force for their efforts in making this exercise a reality.

While in Aguadilla, FBI evidence recovery operations were conducted by an evidence response team, a dive team and tactical and medical components. A logistics support team set up bare base operations.

Christopher Combs, FBI special agent supervisor in charge of the rapid deployment team in Washington, said it was a pleasure working with the Air Force.

"It's rare for the FBI to get the opportunity to work with the TALCE and load-up on actual airframes of C-5s and C-17s, so it's been a fantastic experience," he said. "And it really helps us prepare for our deployments overseas in the event of a terrorist attack."  (Air Force Reserve Command News Service)