Military aviators break service barriers

  • Published
  • By Sgt. Deanne Hurla
  • JBER Joint Information Bureau
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARSON, Alaska --  Naval pilots begin training at Pensacola, Fla., and then branch off for individual service training. For two weeks every two years, many of them once again join forces for Exercise Northern Edge.

During the exercise, Naval and Air Force pilots fly several hours each day over the skies and waters of Alaska to hone their aerial combat skills, and ensure that America's military assets can seamlessly transition from one branch to the next to complete a mission.

"The training here is simple, it is an integration of Air Force, Navy and some Marine air assets in order to coordinate a joint defense of the U.S.," said Navy Lt. j.g. Joe Early, an E-2C Hawkeye flight officer. "It's rare that we work to this level together and it's pretty awesome to see the coordination that has to happen between all the branches."
With coordination comes communication. The Navy is on the ocean, Air Force is on land and the Marines are somewhere in between, Early explained.

Often pilots get so bogged down with working with each other that they forget how to communicate with each other, according to the Frederick, Md., native. This training helps bring it all together and higher headquarters can make changes to how the services work together. Building this level of communication will one day allow communication to be transparent from service to service.

Each military branch uses different words to try to express the same thing, so the Navy and Air Force terminology doesn't always mesh.

"We are different cultures with different terminologies," said Navy Cmdr. Jeremy Brunn, the Strike Fighter Squadron 137 executive officer and F/A-18 Super Hornet pilot. "We've gotten better over the years and joint force doctrine has pushed us to joint terminology. We do a good job taking lessons learned."

According to Early, these differences come from the second level of pilot training.
Everyone starts out going to the same "middle school" -- basic pilot school. Then they go to different "high schools" -- service specific training -- and now everyone is working together in "college" or Exercise Northern Edge, he explained.

"You learn the same thing in 'high school,' but with a different twist to it," he said. "Everyone socializes differently, but when you come back in 'college' and have to work together then what happens is a basic reformation of a group dynamic.

"Coming from different places helps us see different aspects of the missions," he continued. "If we are all looking at the same thing the same way, then we might miss something important. It helps us think way outside the box. Mission completion relies upon thinking outside the box."

Though these missions are only simulations of what pilots may face in aerial combat they are vital learning experiences.

Each mission includes nearly 12 hours of planning - it's a big foot print, explained Brunn, a San Diego native. He said his junior pilots are used to such long planning hours, but he says it's also been eye opening for them to see this type of joint environment and see the possibilities that can come from it.

It's been great to come here and have all the pilots learn to integrate with their Air Force counterparts on a much larger scale than they have before and with a much higher operational tempo, he added.

As the training comes to an end this week, the pilots will take with them new experiences to share with fellow pilots. Also, the military aviation community will have even more information to ensure future operations and exercises run smoothly and forces are able to operate together on short notice.