War Day exercise increases lethality

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Sergio A. Gamboa
  • 325th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Team Tyndall recently came together for a 'war day' to increase the lethality of the 43rd Fighter Squadron and 95th Fighter Squadron's F-22 Raptor pilots in a simulated air combat mission Jan. 16, here.

"The goal is to try to increase the knowledge of the base and give them an idea of what having a fighter squadron that could deploy means and what type of mission they will be training on," said Capt. Daniel Dickinson, 43rd F-22 Raptor instructor pilot and Bravo Flight commander. "With this tasking, we can have the squadron deploying at any point, potentially go to war or defend different countries and execute real world missions."

The point of this exercise was to try to put together a real world combat 'war day' and exercise some training objectives, while creating an atmosphere pilots might see on the battlefield.

The event featured Mitsubishi MU-2 aircraft, F-4 Phantoms, F-16 Fighting Falcons from Luke AFB, Ariz., T-38 Talons and F-22s.

"We gathered aircraft and tried to create a real world mission scenario, to get real-life training for what the 95th FS will be doing less than a year from now," Dickinson said. "I think it's a great opportunity for Tyndall with it now having a combat Air Force squadron on base. The 95th FS is the next step in supporting the mission."

Gathering everything needed for the training to happen took about a month, and if everything goes well, the exercise will try to be incorporated monthly, said Dickinson.

"We would like to expand the exercise to include units near Tyndall to gain more assets and continue to grow and make it a larger scale mission," Dickinson said. "That's what we hope to do the next time we conduct similar training."

Collaborating in the mission was the 43rd FS, 95th FS, 325th Operation Support Squadron and 325th Training Support Squadron.

"With the 325th FW just recently accepting operational F-22's, the timing of this exercise couldn't have been better," said Capt. Dwayne Clark, 325th OSS intelligence weapons and tactics chief. "Any time Team Tyndall's capabilities come together with other units, it's a win for the combat Air Force."

Overall the exercise was a success, said Dickinson.

"Gulf Coast War Day was a success as Tyndall safely executed 32 sorties in just two and a half hours," said Dickinson. "Both pilot and maintenance proficiency soared and new lessons were learned, which are vital to ensuring Tyndall is ready for combat with the arrival of the 95th Fighter Squadron, the home of Mr. Bones."