The Air National Guard has landed its first C-130 aircraft rotation at the U.S. Aviation Detachment in Poland for a joint training exercise.
About 50 airmen and three C-130 Hercules aircraft from the 182nd Airlift Wing, Illinois Air National Guard, joined their Polish counterparts Oct. 15 at the 33rd Air Base, home of the Aviation Detachment at the Powidz Air Base, for the start of exercise Aviation Detachment rotation 15-1.
The Av-Det 15-1 training is hosted by Detachment 1, 52nd Operations Group from Łask Air Base, Poland, according to a release.
Dozens of the two- to three-week NATO exercises have taken place this year in Poland, the Baltics, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve to maintain joint readiness and reassure regional allies and partners.
"Our mission here is to support the Aviation Detachment rotation and build upon the interoperability between our two forces," U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Douglas Applegren, chief of tactics for rotation 15-1 said in the release.
In June, the U.S. Air Force Aviation Detachment in Poland hosted "Av-Det Rotation 14-3" at Lask Air Base. Nearly 300 personnel and 18 F-16 fighter aircraft from the 52nd Fighter Wing, Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, participated in addition to airmen from the 606th Air Control Squadron, Spangdahlem, and from the 100th Air Refueling Wing, RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom.
"We certainly have a robust schedule, certainly through the end of this year in the eastern front," said Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, U.S. Air Forces Africa, and Allied Air Command, in an Aug. 28 interview with Air Force Times. "But ... we continue to move aircraft to get very high-end training that's necessary to support worldwide combat operations."
