Nothing is more satisfying to a Marine Corps unit than mission accomplishment, and Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 4 can attest to that after completing Exercise Red Flag. The squadron participated in the fast-paced international exercise for two weeks to fine tune their war fighting abilities through a simulated combat environment.

"The squadron was extremely pleased with the entire evolution," said Capt. Jared Stone, electronic countermeasures officer with VMAQ-4. "Any time you participate in a large force exercise like Red Flag, the experience gained is invaluable."

As an international exercise, the squadron was exposed to a new perspective of how to operate as a coalition team.

"Since this was a coalition exercise with personnel and aircraft from multiple nations, it provided an opportunity to work with systems and tactics we are not usually exposed to," he said. "In a world where joint and coalition operations are becoming part of the norm, this kind of training is extremely important and hard to come by here at home."

Being the only Marine squadron at Red Flag, VMAQ-4 stepped in to represent and act as ambassadors for the Marine Corps in the international exercise.

"As always our squadron performed to remarkably high standards," Stone said. "As Marines we think of ourselves as being a cut above every other service and VMAQ-4 certainly demonstrated this through our professionalism and tactical performance throughout the exercise."

Coalition training exercises can be a rare opportunity for Marine units, but Red Flag gives squadrons the chance to show their skills to joint and allied forces in a large-scale operation.

"Getting out and flying with other services and other nations in a large scale, simulated combat environment helps us to stay sharp and maintain the combat edge that we need to take with us into battle," he said. "Here in Cherry Point we work hard to provide good and realistic training for our aircrews, but there is no way that we can replicate the experience of Red Flag. Launching with a 70 jet package to fight highly trained aggressor aircraft along with an integrated air defense system is not something that we can simulate during normal operations here."

The intense training developed the squadron's experience at all levels, from the aircrew side to the ground crew. Every Marine from VMAQ-4 left the exercise with more knowledge of combat readiness.

"An exercise of this type gives the maintainers the opportunity to think and make split second decisions on the move," said Gunnery Sgt. Jeffrey Bradley, the squadron's quality assurance chief. "When you operate under such time restraints, you have to be able to make a decision as to the integrity of the aircraft in order to accomplish the mission. Time does not allow one to shrug their shoulders so to speak. By operating under such a tempo, the maintainers are better prepared for real world situations."

After completing Exercise Red Flag, the Marines of VMAQ-4 have greatly benefited from their participation in the coalition training, and are more confident in their combat readiness than before.

"The experience of packing up the whole squadron to deploy keeps us ready to leave at a moment's notice when the call comes to deploy to real world operations," Stone said. "The opportunity for all of the Marines to see the detailed planning and hard work that goes into any large force operation is extremely valuable, particularly in this case where we were able to work as a multi-national force. Perhaps the greatest benefit from this event was providing some of our newer aircrew the chance to fly with all of the elements of an actual combat strike package. The learning curve for those individuals was extremely steep, but this gave them the opportunity to progress as combat aviators and have a new edge to bring to the battlefield."  [ANN Thanks Cpl. Nathaniel C. LeBlanc, MCAS Cherry Point]

FMI: www.usmc.mil