News United States Air Force
 12th Combat Training Squadron supports joint air-to-ground operationsPublished Nov. 19, 2020
                        
                        By Airman 1st Class Dwane Young
                        
                        
                        57th Wing Public Affairs
                **FORT IRWIN ARMY BASE, Calif. (AFNS) --**
                With the turn of a key, the engine is ignited and the silence surrounding the **12th Combat Training Squadron** at Fort Irwin is broken.After everything is loaded in the awaiting Humvees, Staff Sgt. Raymond Flores, a 12th CTS tactical air control party Airman turns around and offers a final piece of advice: “If something isn’t strapped down, hold on to it. It’s going to get bumpy.”The aforementioned bumps offer a tiny glimpse into the fundamental approach of the 12th CTS and the Green Flag West 21-02 exercise. Participants were prepared for a contested battle in a simulated deployed environment from Oct. 30-Nov.13.The 12th CTS, a geographically separated unit of the **57th Operations Group** at **Nellis Air Force Base**, Nevada, supports the U.S. Army **National Training Center**, where Fort Irwin trains Airmen and Soldiers to control, sustain and integrate in a realistic battle environment in order to improve joint force readiness.The unit represents the Air Force in the planning stages with Army commanders and supports up to 11 rotations of Green Flag West exercises yearly. The 12th CTS observes and coaches the joint task force as it executes decisive operations.Green Flag West 21-02 provided some participants with their first experience in combat scenarios and joint, close-air-support operations.During the two-week exercise, Airmen and Soldiers operated in tents, ate meals ready to eat, or MREs, and adapted to desert conditions while preparing to face their simulated enemy, “The Blackhorse,” a role played by Fort Irwin’s 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment’s ground force.“Green Flag represents contested training against a true thinking adversary,” said Lt. Col. Jonathan Wentzel, 12th CTS commander. “Blackhorse is the world’s most advanced opposition force. They’ve studied doctrine of adversary forces and always try to find new and interesting ways to challenge the brigades that we train here.”Despite a large ground-force focus, Green Flag West is not just restricted to being a land exercise. It also provides oppositional air and cyber forces that offer the opportunity to challenge participants in all domains of warfare.“We test brigades and air forces in every one of these domains simultaneously in order to challenge them,” Wentzel said. “In normal day-to-day training, these units might be able to execute their mission as planned. Our goal here is to force every execution, every mission and every component down to a contingency. We want them to have to think through every step.”In order to support the NTC and Green Flag, the 12th CTS’s three flights and the commander’s support staff work to provide comprehensive training to prepare troops to go downrange.The 12th CTS provides continuous support for rotations of Green Flag exercises via the various roles that their flights play. For example, A-Flight’s TACP and Joint Terminal Attack Controller Airmen control aircraft and advise the ground commander. B-Flight serves as the engine, and C-Flight provides real-world weather support.“We are a small unit, and being a GSU (ground support unit), we have to be as self-reliant as possible,” said Tech. Sgt. John D. Polonius, 12th CTS support flight chief. “We are isolated so we focus heavily on efficiency. We all have multiple jobs outside of our trained career field, because out here, you have to be a jack of all trades.”The 12th CTS considers itself to be the glue that bonds joint integration together enabling execution to take place.“We work with the Army every day and understand the intricacies that go into making air power and Army fire power work together,” said Master Sgt. Aaron Cass, 12th CTS operations superintendent. “You can train all day, talk about it or read about it, but when they come here, it’s the realities of working with different characters, working with different types of warfighter functions and making it work.”Although minimally manned, this squadron and the NTC provide a proving ground for all visitors to sharpen their skills while offering critical downrange training for joint units.“Like our Airmen and the Air Force, the 12th CTS represents the flexibility of air power,” Wentzel said. “As we transition our warfighting focus back to large-scale combat operations against peer or near-peer adversaries, exercises like Green Flag represent the pinnacle of training.”LR 



USAF 



AF 



Air Force 



Fort Irwin 



nellis afb 



12th CTS 



12th Combat Training Squadron 



Green Flag West 



U.S. Army 



3rd BCT 



joint 



exercise 



air-land integration 



1st Armored Division 



Fort Bliss 



ACC 



Green Flag 21-02 



NTC 



National Training Center 



57th Wing Blackhorse 



TACP 



JTAC