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West Virginia’s 167th Wing Conducts Readiness Exercise

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. Emily Beightol-Deyerle,
  • 167th Airlift Wing, West Virginia Air National Guard

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - The 167th Airlift Wing completed a four-day Readiness Exercise Validation, Sentry Unicorn 2024, at Shepherd Field April 21.

Held in tandem with the West Virginia National Guard’s Sentry Storm 2024 exercise, the REV gauged the wing’s ability to self-assess its mobilization, operation and sustainment capabilities in contested and degraded environments.

A team of 20 Air Mobility Command inspectors observed the 167th Inspector General’s Wing Inspection Team as the WIT assessed more than 300 167th AW Airmen executing mission-essential tasks during the exercise.

“It’s important that we are properly self-assessing and reporting as a wing,” said Lt. Col. Tony Henry, 167th AW inspector general. “When it’s time to mobilize, we need to ensure our personnel are as trained, prepared, equipped and ready as we have reported them to be.”

Exercise participants worked through 330 injects to demonstrate various aspects of the wing’s mission, including deployment processing, loading and launching aircraft, defending the base, emergency and attack procedures and casualty care. Thirteen C-17 Globemaster aircraft missions transported nearly 200,000 pounds of cargo and 197 passengers during the exercise.

With a focus on joint interoperability, support from five other units enhanced the realism of the exercise scenarios.

Between their simulated combat missions, two A-10s from the Michigan Air National Guard’s 127th Wing conducted an integrated combat turn, or rapid re-arming and refueling.

Black Hawk helicopters from West Virginia National Guard’s C. Company, 1-150th Assault Battalion, C. Company, 2-104th General Support Aviation Battalion, and C-130 aircraft from the 130th Airlift Wing supported personnel recovery and aeromedical evacuation scenarios.

Additionally, the 167th transported a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System from the 5-113th Field Artillery Battalion, North Carolina Army National Guard, for a HIMARS Rapid Infiltration at Fort Liberty, North Carolina.

“I asked a lot of our wing during this exercise, and I couldn’t be prouder of the efforts demonstrated by our Airmen,” said Col. Martin Timko, 167th Airlift Wing commander. “We don’t want to settle. We want to continually improve and continually build confidence in our members so they can go downrange and handle anything that is thrown at them.”

The REV is one part of a continual evaluation process that culminates in a capstone visit. The next capstone visit for the 167th AW will be in 2026.

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