Force Support Squadron completes Silver Flag

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Andrew Caya
  • 914th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
NIAGARA FALLS AIR RESERVE STATION, N.Y. --  Since late April, 14 Airmen from the 914th Force Support Squadron honed their bare base skills during a recent deployment to Silver Flag at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia.

During the week-long course, 914th Airlift Wing Airmen from the FSS --Services and Personnel Support for Contingency Operations, PERSCO --built and maintained bare-base operations at mock forward-deployed locations.

The Airmen honed a variety of AFSC-related skills, with Airmen from Active Duty, Guard and Reserve components, said Force Support Squadron Superintendent Chief Master Sgt. Antonio Borrelli.

"It worked out quite well," added Borrelli.

Services members received additional training on providing food service, mortuary affairs and lodging under simulated wartime conditions, while PERSCO members received training on accounting for deployed forces, processing casualty reports and conducting personnel sustainment actions.

It's more of a refresher course than anything, said Borrelli. The Airmen should be doing all this training at home-station, and Silver Flag is a culmination to ensure home station training is on par with the Air Force standard.

PERSCO Specialist Senior Airman Jennifer Bright was part of a team of four 914th personnel specialists who completed the training.

The first two days were classroom instruction on AFSC tasks, followed by a written test on the third day. The fourth day was the preparation for the exercise followed by a day-long exercise and graduation, said Bright.

The living conditions were very humbling, said Bright. The duration of the training was setup like a genuine deployed location.

Silver Flag was very important because there are AFSC aspects the junior Airmen need to focus their training on, said Bright, and mentioned that during Silver Flag the Airmen worked on tasking that senior-enlisted usually handled back at home station.

Bright said the Airmen would execute the processes under the guidance of senior-enlisted during Silver Flag which resulted in the Airmen's increased knowledge of their AFSC.

"It was really good training," said Bright. "I learned a lot."