U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jeremy Jones (left), a crew chief
with 673rd Civil Engineer Squadron, Civil Engineer Fire, checks behind his crew
as part of their morning checks during Exercise Northern Edge 2015 at Joint
Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, June, 23 2015. Northern Edge 2015 is
Alaska’s premier joint training exercise designed to practice operations,
techniques and procedures as well as enhance interoperability among the
services. Thousands of participants from all services, from active duty, Reserve
and National Guard units are involved. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Brian Ragin)
U.S. Air Force firefighters with 673rd Civil Engineer
Squadron, Civil Engineer Fire, answer a Flight Line 911 call during Exercise
Northern Edge 2015 at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, June 23, 2015.
Northern Edge 2015 is Alaska’s premier joint training exercise designed to
practice operations, techniques and procedures as well as enhance
interoperability among the services. Thousands of participants from all
services from active duty, Reserve and National Guard units are involved. (U.S.
Army photo by Sgt. Brian Ragin)
U.S. Air Force firefighters with 673rd Civil Engineer
Squadron, Civil Engineer Fire, answer a Flight Line 911 call during Exercise
Northern Edge 2015 at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, June, 23 2015.
Northern Edge 2015 is Alaska’s premier joint training exercise designed to
practice operations, techniques and procedures as well as enhance
interoperability among the services. Thousands of participants from all
services from active duty, Reserve and National Guard units are involved. (U.S.
Army photo by Sgt. Brian Ragin)
Story by Sgt. Brian Ragin
JOINT BASE
ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska – U.S. Air Force firefighters with 673rd Civil
Engineer Squadron, Civil Engineer participated in crash fire exercise during
Exercise Northern Edge 2015, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, June
15-26.
Exercise Northern Edge 2015 is an Alaskan
command hosted exercise and one of Alaska’s biggest joint training exercises.
It brings all U.S. military services together for joint training to practice
operations, techniques and procedures as well as enhance interoperability among
the services.
“Our mission
is to provide fire protection coverage for all aircraft participating in NE15,”
said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jeremy Jones, a 29-year-old, Pearl Valley,
California, native and crew chief with 673rd CES, CEF. “We are also here to
protect individuals working on them.”
Jones and
his fire crew have spent 24 hours on and off since the beginning of the
exercise insuring the safety of all participants in the exercise.
“The variety
of aircraft is one of our biggest challenges,” said Jones. “We have a certain
number of aircraft here [JBER}. We usually deal with the F-22, C-130, C-5 and
C-17 aircraft.”
The fire
rescuers had the opportunity to learn how to work with new aircraft they have
never worked on until now, including the U.S. Navy and Marines aircraft the
General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye, McDonnell
Douglas F/A-18F Super Hornet.
“We have a
lot of individuals that have not operated on any of these aircraft prior to
NE15. The exercise is perfect for us to get our group of guys trained up, so if
something does go wrong in the future we will be able to provide the quality of
coverage that we usually do,” Jones said.
In addition to all the operations, Northern
Edge provides opportunities for joint training across the Navy, Air Force, and
Marines.
“We are
getting great training. The individuals on the aircraft and crew chiefs have
been providing us with a bunch of training,” said Jones. “It is benefiting us
all service members across all services.”
The Northern
Edge exercise evolved over the years. It was first known as Jack Frost, later
turning into Brim Frost and then Arctic Warrior. The first NE kicked off in
1993 and is on its 22nd iteration.
