La. Guard troops show what they can do

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany – More than 130 airmen from the Louisiana Air National Guard’s 159th Civil Engineer and Force Support Squadrons, took part in a Silver Flag exercise at Ramstein Air Base, Germany in June.
Silver Flag is an opportunity for airmen to receive specialized training that they would not get at home station during a week-long bare-base operations exercise to establish a base from the ground up.
The purpose of the exercise is to sharpen critical deployment skills that are needed to support world-wide contingency operations. The event concluded with a two-day exercise to apply the classroom training.
Several different career fields, known as Air Force Specialty Codes, from both squadrons worked together to accomplish tasks required to establish and maintain a forward operating base during initial air operations. In contingency operations, airmen would construct an airfield, provide power, water, lodging and meals to support approximately 150-500 members at any given time.
“Silver Flag is a training event that brings in those units and systematically go through each individual AFSC, as well as the planning element from A to Z,” said Maj. Jeffrey Carroll of Slidell, 159 CES commander.
“At the very end of that classroom training piece is the practical application, where the instructors go out and we execute a scenario of some X mission that they have given us.”
The 159 FSS received instruction on meal prep planning, maintaining accountability, lodging, reporting casualty actions and mortuary affairs.