POPE FIELD, N.C. — Operation Ultimate Reach is the U.S. military's demonstration of projecting global power. For nearly 5,000 troops, it's a chance to practice parachute jumps, aerial refueling and international cooperation.
For Staff Sgt. Jonathan Akers, it's also a chance to show Air Force pride on his home soil of Spain.
"I was born in Torrejón Air Base in Madrid when it was open to the Americans," said Akers, a dual U.S.-Spanish citizen.. "My father was a maintainer for the fighters over there," said Akers, a dual U.S.-Spanish citizen. "I was basically born and raised in Spain. Once I turned 23, I moved over to the states to join the Air Force."
Now a loadmaster for a C-17 Globemaster at Joint Base Charleston in South Carolina, Akers spoke to Air Force Times on Monday as his unit was preparing to leave for Spain as part of Ultimate Reach, a small part of the massive NATO event known as Trident Juncture 2015.
The largest NATO exercise in more than 10 years, the nearly month-long live portion of Trident Juncture 2015 will involves about 36,000 troops from more than 30 nations. Activities are taking will take place in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
One of the Air Force’s parts of the exercise, Ultimate Reach is an endeavor to practice rapid response to crises anywhere aroundin the globe.
The plan was is for seven C-17s loaded with paratroopers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne to depart in the early morning hours of Nov. 4 from Pope,loaded with paratroopers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne. Along the way, the planes would practice aerial refueling with KC-10 tankers. Then, upon arrival in Spain, the soldiers would practice parachuting behind enemy lines.
"Throughout the flight I'm going to make sure that everything's safe and then especially during the air drop operation, we've got to make sure that everything goes according to plan because there is a lot of risk involved in it and a lot of things can go wrong," Akers told Air Force Times.
But returning to Spain, Akers says he's not the same as when he left, something that becomes apparent when he goes to visit his family.
"It’s very, very humbling, a little bit disorienting to go back and try to talk to people about what I do because their lives haven’t changed much and here I am," he said.; "I left and then I’m a completely different person.," he said.
"It sounds silly, but I never imagined being a part of something as important as what we do," Akers continued. "Not many people realize about all of the training and readiness that comes into play. Not just us, but the guys we're dropping out the back of the jet. They literally risk their lives on every single training exercise that they do. It just fills me with pride, honestly, I feel like I'm part of something very important."
Planning for Europe
But for Akers to even get to Spain, he needed fuel. That’s why Air Mobility Command is also launchingalso launched eight KC-10 tankers to refuel the C-17s en route to Europe.
"We practice this mission every day, day in and day out," said Capt. Thomas Dunn, a KC-10 instructor pilot and one of the lead planners for the Ultimate Reach refueling exercise.
If the military is going to have a global response force, one of the most critical components will be transportation and support.
"It's a lot of responsibility, it's something we take very seriously," Dunn said. "It can go down at any time. We have to be ready to go out the door."
Lt. Gen. Samuel Cox, commander of the 18th Air Force, lauded the air refueling mission and said that operations like Ultimate Reach are necessary to keep everyone sharp.
"Probably the most important part of air refueling is the fact that there's trust," he said. "It's a trust and it's a contract between tankers and the receivers that they will be at the right altitude, at the right time, on the right airspeed, and that comes from training."
Dunn described working on a tanker aircraft as "very rewarding."
"You get to see the world, we get to travel, work with all our NATO partners," Dunn said. "It's a lot of fun. You get to see a lot of great things, be a part of a lot of great operations either from fighting ISIS right now or supporting humanitarian missions. We're really looking forward to getting out there and supporting NATO and showing the world what we're made of and what we can do."
As a lead Air Force planner for Ultimate Reach, Capt. Daniel Naske, a C-17 pilot with the 15th Airlift Squadron, had been arranging the exercise since January.
"There is a lot of planning which goes into an airdrop exercise," he said. "This one specifically had more because we were taking aircraft and paratroopers from the United States to Europe, which required more coordination with air traffic control, diplomatic clearances, foreign relationships with the host nation to ensure we had access to the airspace."
"There were multiple conferences with NATO partners," Naske continued. "The first conference was in Germany and the final conference was in Valencia, Spain, to execute this airdrop in Zaragoza [Spain]. It has been a couple months in the planning, but overall things worked out really well."
Naske described the language barrier as "a bit difficult," but said he was fortunate to have help with the planning from Capt. David Guillen, a Spanish pilot on an exchange program with the Air Force.
Countering Russia
The multinational effort is not only a practice exercise, but an opportunity to demonstrate NATO military capabilities to the world. Officials said troops will not only be participating in traditional training, but also focused on cybersecurity and hybrid warfare — the first time such large international exercises have focused so heavily on the areas.
That’s largely due to Russia, which has used "hybrid warfare" for operations in Ukraine and Syria. National security experts say it involves a combination of supporting rebel elements inside a country, supplying them with arms, augmenting them with Russian troops, and then trying to cover everything up with propaganda.
"Europe isn’t what it was 18 months ago, or even six months ago," said Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, head of U.S. European Command, said at an Oct. 30 news conference. "Right now I do not see [Russia] as a partner."
NATO leaders want the exercise to demonstrate that they can respond to any threat posed by Russia. Breedlove said Russia will need to stop its aggressive behavior and re-engage diplomatically "if we're going to have a Europe whole, free, at peace and prosperous."
Air Force Global Strike Command also participated in the exercise, sending a pair of B-52 Stratofortresses from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, across the ocean.
According to a statement from Global Strike Command, the bombers "executed a show-of-force in Spain, participated in a naval maritime strike scenario, and conducted a large force integration scenario in Portugal."
Capt. Kevin Crawford, a flight commander with the 2nd Operations Support Squadron, said in a statement that "Trident Juncture allows B-52 aircrew to enhance their readiness by flying a global strike profile and conducting operations in unfamiliar airspace."
Cox said exercises like Trident Juncture 2015 allow airmen to practice "our ability to be able take a force and move it anywhere in the world on a moment's notice."
And the international coordination is critical in an era where multinational cooperation is necessary for most missions.
"Our NATO partners are so integral to everything we do. So we train with them a significant amount of time," Cox said. "I won't say it's really easy, but it's something we work at all the time."
For his part, Akers said life on a C-17 is "100 percent dynamic."
"You don't know what you're going to do one week versus another week," he said. "You can move anything from literally an orca whale to pamphlets."
Or sometimes, like Ultimate Reach and Trident Juncture, you have the "few but great times you get to experience different cultures, and you go places that you'll remember forever and it's a very, very rewarding job," Akers said. "Something of this magnitude with so many key players from different countries, I think it's very important for the United States to showcase their capabilities and just demonstrate that we lead the way, not only at home but around the world."
