CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. (USTCNS) --- Airmen at Charleston AFB recently joined the U.S. soldiers and the Hungarian military to test readiness, response time and the ability to rapidly deploy forces in the European theater.
Exercise Lariat Response marked the first time this kind of operation was performed.
"We crossed boundaries that had never been crossed before," said Capt. Todd Groomes, 437th Airlift Wing combat tactics officer. "It was a European Command exercise supported by Air Mobility Command."
In early June, four aircrews and 45 other personnel from Charleston traveled to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, June 6 to participate, Groomes said. The deployment order came June 8, and aircraft from Aviano AB, Italy, and Ramstein AB performed an airfield seizure at Kecskemet, Hungary, securing the field for the landing and offloading of Charleston C-17s.
"This airfield was a no-kidding, forward-operating base," said Groomes. "The only stuff we had was what we brought in."
"The maintenance personnel with us did an incredible job of establishing forward operations," Groomes continued. "We had a problem with the hydraulic system on one of the aircraft. They got out and fixed the jet and had it up and running that evening (June 8). They worked in some of the harshest conditions possible. We had them work a 20-hour day. They were only off for two or three hours, and they came back to launch us and did it with a smile. They deserve a lot of credit."
From June 9 to 11, the Army ran its exercise with the Hungarian military, Groomes said. While that was going on, Charleston's aircrews had a chance to practice search and rescue operations with the Hungarians.
"The aircrew was told to land their C-17," Groomes said. "We took them off the plane and put them on Army Blackhawk helicopters. They were taken to a desolate area and given the objective to be at a certain place at a certain time for extraction. The area they were in was some of the roughest terrain around. The next day we informed the Hungarian's NATO search and rescue team that a C-17 aircrew was down 30 miles northeast of Budapest. They went out and found the guys, did a medical evaluation, and extracted them back to Budapest. It was excellent training with NATO SAR."
In addition to the SAR training, Charleston crews had the chance to practice overseas airdrop, anchored air refueling and low-level operations in a foreign country, Groomes said. They also had a chance to test defensive systems, perform engine-running and combat offloads, and practice backing.
According to Groomes, the crews also tested the active air defense system by intentionally flying within the kill range of an SA-6 to see how well the C-17s threat avoidance tactics work.
"This exercise was a great chance to build cohesion between AMC and USAREUR," Groomes said. (FROM AIR MOBILITY COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS)
