JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas -- More than 140 members of the 433rd Airlift Wing took part in “Aloha Stampede,” a major training exercise in Hilo, Hawaii, May 14-19.
Aloha Stampede was the first time the 433rd AW executed a combined training and fly-away exercise, according to Col. Lee E. Merkle, 433rd Operations Group commander and Aloha Stampede troop commander.
The wing received refueling support from a 927th Air Refueling Wing KC-135 Stratotanker from MacDill Air Force Base, Florida.
"Under the new inspection plan, the wing commander is responsible for showing the wing is ready. This exercise is just one key piece of ensuring that this wing can do the jobs it's tasked with and provide combat ready Airmen," said Merkle.
The aim of the two-fold exercise was to provide mission-ready aircrews to conduct overseas air, land and air-refueling missions, and provide deployable members with ground training from numerous agencies within the wing at the deployed location, according to Merkle.
Training included egress non-ejection, self and aid and buddy care, land and water survival training, air-refueling, cargo preparation, and increment monitoring of cargo for inspection during all phases of the flyaway to include pre-deployment, deployment and redeployment.
The 433rd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron was also players on this exercise, honing their skills in the care and transporting the wounded to major medical facilities where they can receive further medical care.
Although training was geared towards operations personnel, a number of support units are benefiting from the exercise as well, such as the 26th and 74th Aerial Port Squadrons, 433rd Force Support Squadron and the 433rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.
Capt. Michael Medrano, 433rd Operations Group chief operations plans officer, responsible for the planning all the non-standard C-5 tasking, talked about some of the challenges the wing faced with putting an exercise of this size together.
"We started back in December with execution in May, being a Reserve wing - one of the challenges was getting information out to everyone all at once because of everyone's different schedules and civilian jobs. But at the end of the day everything came together quite nicely," said Medrano.