821st CRG trains with Nevada ANG Published Feb. 8, 2016 By 2nd Lt. Geneva Croxton 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- In terms of communication and flexibility, it is hard to match that of the 821st Contingency Response Group. From Jan. 20 to 22, a 41-member team displayed its skills while taking part in an exercise that involved opening an airbase and supporting airfield operations at Amedee Army Airfield near Herlong, California. The team was comprised of Travis Air Force Base Airmen from various backgrounds, working together with the Reno Air National Guard, Nevada and airframes from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. Training took place in all areas for the crews involved. Aircrews were able to practice touch-and-go landings, and train with night-vision goggles. The crews also were able to practice landing-zone operations and communication with ground resources. "Our capability is to be able to get out the door within 12 hours and that's what we were trying to do in this case," said Capt. Lynne Grady, unit operations officer for the exercise. "If you have more time it is great, but we are always training toward the standard." Versatility and flexibility from the Airmen of the 821st CRG are some of the strongest capabilities they offer Air Mobility Command. The focus of the team is on the mission and all members help complete tasks. Among the priorities for the Airmen are to focus on keeping engines running, setting up the landing zones, uploading and downloading cargo and assisting with passengers. Having Airmen who are capable of doing multiple jobs expediently, with limited manpower and a small footprint is crucial. "We do the job of an entire base with just 41 people" Grady said. "It means long days and is a challenge." The flexibility of the CRG helped train other units. When a C-17 Globemaster III and C-130 Hercules scheduled to land at a different airfield had to divert due to bad weather, the CRG was able to accommodate them at Amedee. Many factors make the mission of the CRG difficult, but their tools and skills make them successful, Grady said. "Communication is key, as long as you are up front about the training you are trying to accomplish and they are trying to accomplish," Grady said. "As long as you can remain flexible with the changes which are happening, you are going to get the mission done." The training exercise was beneficial, creating many scenarios for the 821st that they could not experience at Travis. Finding space for the incoming jets was a priority for Tech. Sgt Joseph Joiner, 821st CRS ramp coordinator for the mission. Making sure that the aircraft were "correctly parked where they needed to go without clearance issues" was a difficult task, Joiner said. Though not a problem at Travis, the small flight line space at Amedee Army Airfield provided distinct challenges to the team. "Any time you have multiple aircraft coming in to one location, you have to make sure they all fit on the ramp," Joiner said. "At Amedee, with a smaller parking ramp, we had to figure out how to fit a KC-10s and C-17s altogether." While on the mission, Joiner also was training two Airmen in the duties of the CRW. "You have to consider how it is going to affect everybody else on the airfield," Grady said. "We have our porters and they are going to need to upload and download these aircraft and if you don't park them right, you are making their job more difficult." The maintainers on the mission also benefit from the training. "As a maintainer, we have to be qualified on our specific airframe before we go to a CRW unit," said Tech. Sgt. Brett Ernst from the 821st. "I had 10 years of experience working with the C-5s and still had to get dual qualified to have proficiencies on both C-5s and C-17s. "The time constrains we face are challenging, but exercises like this allow us to get hands on time with the airframes. We gain exposure when we are out on the road with the CRW to airframes we do not have hands on here at Travis." These time constraints were especially beneficial to the team, Ernst said. "We go to other bases to integrate with their maintenance to get the feeling of what day to day operations are like of planes coming in and sitting on the ground from 4 to 12 hours, or 18 hours, as opposed to at Travis where the planes are at home station and have a longer window of time for repairs," Ernst said. While on the ground, the crew worked with partners in the local area. "We established good contacts with the airfield crew and also with the Reno ANG, which supported us with vehicles as well as crash and fire rescue," Grady said. "Being able to rely on other people and help them with training was beneficial. They were able to do egress training and simulated emergency response training." When the Airmen are not working on their specific job, they are helping out their team. "The maintainers helped me out, marshalling the aircraft and the wing clearance," Joiner said. The challenges that the team faced during its three-day mission help to better prepare the team for deployment. "That kind of stuff is what makes us so versatile," Grady said. "When we landed there on (Jan. 20), there was no port. We downloaded ourselves from the C-17, got set up and then called the next jet in an hour when everything was ready to go. Everybody had to get together and work hard to overcome these challenges." On Jan. 22, the 41-person crew finished the final component to its mission and uploaded its gear. When a wall of rain approached the flight line, they had finished just in time.