GRISSOM AIR RESERVE BASE, Ind. -- Air Force Reservists from the 434th Air Refueling Wing at Grissom Air Reserve Base, Indiana, travelled to Yokota Air Base, Japan to fuel the fight during Exercise Keen Sword ’25 in late October.
Keen Sword is a bilateral exercise Japan designed to increase readiness and interoperability while strengthening the U.S.-Japan alliance.
From a command perspective, the exercise allowed Air Force Reserve Command members the opportunity to gain experience operating in the Indo-Pacific Command environment. Operators and maintainers gained experience in a distributed environment with the exercise taking place at various locations across Japan.
“This was a great learning experience,” said Senior Master Sgt. Ken Knight, chief boom operator with the 72nd Air Refueling Squadron. “We treated it like landing in a bare-bones environment and came away with a better understanding of how to operate in the INDOPACOM arena.”
The multinational exercise involved the Japan Self-Defense Force and U.S. military units, along with participants from the Australian Defense Force and Canadian Armed Forces.
Grissom maintainers and aircrew members operated out of Yokota, but were supported by teams at Kadena AB as well.
Aircraft refueled during the exercise included F-18s, F-2s, F-16s and F-35s.