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Hill reservists take part in multinational Cope Thunder

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Christina Wright
  • 419th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  Reservists from Hill AFB's 419th Fighter Wing joined more than 800 U.S. and allied forces at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, for Cooperative Cope Thunder 06-3.

Cooperative Cope Thunder, the Air Force's largest multilateral air combat exercise in the Pacific, began in late July and ended in early August. This was the second time in five years that pilots from the 466th Fighter Squadron as well as maintenance personnel from the Air Force Reserve Command wing participated in the two-week exercise.

"We took 13 jets with us and flew every one of them for at least one sortie," said Maj. Chris Walters, operations officer for the 419th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.

Each sortie was a joint, international combat training opportunity, involving allied, coalition and observer nations. Sweden, Japan and Canada comprised the multinational forces.

Lead wing in the exercise was the 35th FW from Misawa Air Base, Japan.

Lt. Col. Stuart Lum, commander of the 35th FW Aircraft Maintenance Group, said he "was truly impressed" with the condition of the 419th FW aircraft.

"They (the 419th maintenance squadron) performed to perfection and maintained the condition of their jets throughout," he said.

Because of the maintenance performance, the 466th FS pilots were able to complete an unprecedented 186 sorties resulting in 406.7 training flying hours during the exercise, with an average sortie time of 2.2 hours.

"The aircraft, for the most part, performed as expected," said Master Sgt. James Pineault, a maintenance flight chief. "The cooperation between the various units helped a lot when problems arose. Lending tools and sharing of parts was common and lent a hand to the 419th being the only unit that met every assigned mission throughout the exercise.

"All in all, it was a very good deployment," said Sergeant Pineault. "The majority of the maintenance crew were junior enlisted and on their first deployment. Their performance was outstanding."

"We never missed a sortie and always came up with the jets they required," said Tech. Sgt. Bart Bates, a 419th FW crew chief. "It was a good effort between each of the shops. All shops helped where they could."

Training with other nationalities, away from home, enhanced the training, according to Sergeant Pineault.

"Cope Thunder demonstrates, on a smaller scale, how we would deploy for an AEF or war plan tasking," said Maj. Max Stitzer, maintenance group deputy commander.

"We produced missions at a higher rate than we normally would, even at home station, where we have significantly more infrastructure and support from the entire maintenance group complex and workforce." (AFRC News Service)