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A new Kentucky Air National Guard unit, the 123rd Contingency Response Group, is coming up big for Ramstein’s 86th Contingency Response Group.
The 123rd CRG, only officially formed in April, sent two aerial porters this summer to augment the 86th during Operation Assured Delivery in Tbilisi, Georgia.
There, they worked side-by-side with their active-duty counterparts from the 86th, bringing much-needed humanitarian support to the area after the Russian invasion.
The arrangement quickly proved itself beneficial to both units, and soon after the 123rd sent a small security forces team with the 86th CRG’s 786th Security Forces Squadron on a mission to an undisclosed location.
“I’m most proud that this is a home-grown initiative. No one told us we had to develop this relationship – it just seemed like a good idea,” said Col. Timothy Brown, 86th CRG commander. “It’s turned out even better than we hoped. The guardsmen bring a positive, can-do attitude. They arrive ready to do the job and don’t leave until it’s done.”
As the acknowledged forerunner in modern-day contingency response, members of the 86th CRG spend a lot of time away from home and need support from units like the 123rd. In exchange, the guardsmen have an opportunity to learn the techniques proven most effective in the field. The new friendship is already showing dividends on both sides.
“It’s a stepping stone for the 123rd and the 86th to work together, build camaraderie and learn how each other works so we can feed off of each other,” said Staff Sgt. Brian Leach, an aerial porter with the 123rd, shortly after returning from Georgia. “Obviously they’ve been doing this longer than anyone else in the Air Force, so we need to learn as much as we can from the best and then take it back home and get our guys up to par. If we ever need (the 86th), or they ever need us, we can trust each other. I’m sure everybody on both sides will agree.”
Being a new unit doesn’t mean its members are new to the job. Members of the 123rd were hand picked for the mission, based on their experience.
“It’s a relatively new specialty within our job, for the guard guys, but it’s still based on our Air Force specialty code,” Sergeant Leach said. “We take our job knowledge from our AFSC and form it into a specialty, which is the CRG.”
Tech. Sgt. Adam Keller, a 123rd Security Forces member who spent his active-duty days doing similar work for the 435th Airlift Wing when it was still stationed at Rhein Main Air Base, is taking special interest in how things develop.
“It’s good to see how we went from before CRG existed to how we’ve actually developed it into the CRG we’re doing nowadays,” Sergeant Keller said. “The 86th has really run off with it and done a good job.”
One of the most valuable commodities the guardsmen provide their active-duty counterparts is rest.
“We learned that most of (the 86th CRG members) have at least 45 days of leave on file, so us being there to augment gave them some much-needed time off, which is good,” Sergeant Leach said.
One 86th member was able to leave Georgia and go home to see his child off to his first day of school after they arrived, he said.
“If we hadn’t been able to come in and go downrange, he wouldn’t have been able to see his kid’s first day of school. Maybe not a big deal for some people, but it was a big deal to him.”
The future looks bright for this new working relationship, and may open the door to similar cooperation between other units in the CRG community.
“I’m very excited, mainly because this is a chance for us to get out and see how the active-duty CRGs operate,” Sergeant Keller said. “The 86th CRG and the 786th Security Forces have a long history of doing this kind of work, so we’re going to take what we learn back home to our new unit.”
