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A mixture of total force Airmen participated in the seventh annual French air force-hosted multinational close air support exercise, Serpentex, Sept. 15 to 26 in Mont-de-Marsan, France.
The exercise involved more than 700 service members from Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States working together.
“This exercise was important to help build upon the already strong partnership we have with our allies,” said Maj. Sarah Fortin, 4th Air Support Operations Group chief of operations. “We were able to train with our allied nations’ various CAS assets. You never know which allied aircraft will assist our ground forces with CAS.”
Serpentex is held annually to practice precision air-to-ground strikes. During the exercise, joint terminal attack controllers trained to enhance their communication and control procedures while aircrews executed multiple CAS air strikes against urban and rural targets.
The exercise allowed members to update and maintain their training currency requirements and allowed partner JTACs and aircrew to enhance interoperability to maintain global readiness.
During the exercise, Senior Airman Alex Braatz, 2nd Air Support Operations Squadron JTAC, was administered his initial JTAC evaluation.
“The initial JTAC evaluation is every radio operator maintenance and driver’s dream and nightmare wrapped into one,” he said. “It’s an assessment of our job knowledge, gear preparation and ability to handle stress as a JTAC.”
In addition to CAS, members from the 4th ASOG provided intelligence support and air liaising by developing exercise scenarios, reviewing air support requests and conducting various mission briefs for multinational JTAC members and aircrew. For the first time, the 4th ASOG team included a weather technician from the 21st Operational Weather Squadron.
Additionally, Air Force weather forecasters integrated with French air
force weather forecasters to share techniques and conduct daily weather briefings for the exercise participants.
“Overall, Serpentex 2014 was successful with both our Airmen and partners gaining valuable experience while working together,” Fortin said. “We look forward to continue training and working with our allies to achieve seamless interoperability.”
Air National Guard Airmen from the 274th ASOS at Syracuse, New York, also participated in the exercise.
