HOHENFELS, Germany (Aug. 28, 2015) -- In every airborne operation, the force of paratroopers jumping into a drop zone is only half the battle. Once those Soldiers hit the ground, the next phase of the operation begins: seize an airfield and rapidly build combat power through air-land operations.
This operation requires a coordinated team of Air Force and Army personnel to find a viable airstrip, secure it, and then land transport aircraft carrying the heavy equipment and other forces necessary to run any combat exercise.
Between Aug. 27 and 28, a combined team of multinational aircraft from Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States, carrying equipment and personnel from their countries as well as Italy and Spain, executed an air-land operation to build combat power for the combined multinational at the Hohenfels Training area as part of Exercise Swift Response 15.
Over two days, 43 separate aircraft landed at the short takeoff and landing, or STOL, strip in Hohenfels, Germany. To conduct this exercise, the aircraft would land on the STOL, rapidly unload their cargo, and within 20 minutes depart again for Ramstein Airbase in western Germany to reload and return to Hohenfels for another round.
To make these landings happen, the Combined Joint Task Force Devil, commanded by the 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, secured the STOL strip after landing in the Hohenburg Drop Zone the day before. Engineers, as part of this task force, also helped conduct a rapid air-strip repair to ensure the STOL was ready to receive aircraft.
Capt. Jeremy McNatt, a Air Force air mobility liaison officer and the landing zone safety officer on the STOL, said controlling this portion of the exercise was "challenging but interesting and rewarding as well. Everyone does business just a little different, so communicating, translating ideas and thoughts is really half the battle. The whole point is joint operability."
In addition to the pilots and crew from all three nations landing at the STOL, ground security was provided by Italian and U.K. paratroopers, and airmen from the U.S. Air Force's 921st Contingency Operations Squadron provided command and control of all operations on the STOL.
To properly replicate the effect of air-landing, a multinational brigade's worth of equipment and personnel, several pieces of equipment from the training units were pre-positioned in Hohenfels, and moved to the area near the STOL strip. This allowed the logistics personnel on the ground to actually build the lodgement, while also allowing the multinational brigade to begin the next phases of the exercise.
Exercise Swift Response 15 is the U.S. Army's largest combined airborne training event in Europe since the end of the Cold War. More than 4,800 service members from 11 NATO nations - including Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States - are participating.
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