347th RQG to participate in largest personnel recovery exercise

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Frances Locquiao
  • 23rd Wing Public Affairs
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  The 347th Rescue Group geared up to participate in the world's largest multinational personnel recovery exercise scheduled to take place today through April 23 at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

The two week-long Angel Thunder, sponsored by Air Combat Command, is an exercise with the objective of training personnel to perform isolated personnel recovery, mass casualty operations and post-disaster operations.

"Angel Thunder demonstrates the broad range of capabilities and inherent flexibility in rescue forces across the spectrum of work and the range of potential contingencies," said Lt. Col. Steve Gregg, 41st RQS director of operations. "It's far more than combat search and rescue."

For the exercise, HC-130P Combat King aircraft, HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters and a Guardian Angel team, which consists of pararescuemen, combat rescue officers and survival, evasion, resistance and escape specialists, were sent to participate.

They will be supported by maintainers from the 23rd Maintenance Group and force protection members from the 824th Security Forces Squadron as well as other support personnel.

One of these support personnel is Senior Airman D'Angelo Dairon, 71st Rescue Squadron airborne mission systems specialist, who has participated in Angel Thunder once before.

"The exercise is not only an opportunity for us to support the major players during stressful times, but a chance to work with other services and agencies," he said. "Even though we always have a busy schedule, the best part is working with different aircraft and practicing different capabilities."

During the exercise, Moody squadrons will have an opportunity to work with members of the U.S. Army, National Reconnaissance Office, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Justice Department, Joint Forces Command, Southern Command, Special Operations Command and other federal agencies.

Along with American forces, others involved in the event will be coming from Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

"This exercise gives us exposure to joint, government-integrated rescue scenarios," Lt. Col. Edward Lengel, 347th Rescue Group deputy commander. "We are able to work alongside many of our American forces as well as foreign allies."

Most of the scenarios will take place at Davis-Monthan, but others will occur in southern Arizona and New Mexico areas. The Bisbee-Douglas International Airport, a former bomber training airfield during World War II, will also be used during the exercise.

"These areas allow us to train in desert conditions much like our areas of responsibility," said Colonel Lengel. "Our rescue forces can encounter many different scenarios to include CSAR, humanitarian and disaster recovery."

In addition to testing rescue recovery capabilities, the exercise will also test how the 347th Operations Support Squadron manages the Rescue Operations Center.

"Angel Thunder allows the 347th OSS to practice executing a full spectrum of command and control rescue operations in austere conditions," said Colonel Lengel.

Since Angel Thunder is designed to test the responsiveness of rescue forces, they will not know the full detail of each scenario, but Colonel Gregg is confident in the 347th RQG's abilities to accomplish the mission.

"I have great faith that the rescue units will rise to the occasion and be successful in any scenario," said Colonel Gregg. "We are trained and ready to execute rescue capabilities because we prepare for these types of events every day."

Angel Thunder began in 2006 as a local exercise organized by the 563rd Rescue Group, a geographically-separated unit of the 23rd Wing.