Paratroopers, Airmen train together
by Pfc. Kissta M. Feldner
2nd BCT, 82nd Abn. Div. PAO

photos by Pfc. Kissta M. Feldner/2nd BCT, 82nd Abn. Div. PAO Staff Sgt. Robert Ballard, left, and 1st Lt. Russell Dubrowa, both with A Troop, 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, check a map before moving into a village during the Mobility Air Forces Exercise Nov. 18. During the training mission, paratroopers jumped into the Nevada Test and Training Range and seized a village being terrorized by members of the Taliban. The MAFEX was a joint exercise for the Army and Air Force.

NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. — More than 400 paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division converged with Airmen from over a dozen Air Force bases for a bi-annual exercise during training at the U.S. Air Force Weapons School.

Soldiers, with 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Abn. Div., flew six hours on C-17 Globemaster III aircrafts from Fort Bragg to the Nevada Test and Training Range to take part in the Mobility Air Forces Exercise Nov. 18.

Paratroopers busily donned their parachutes after flying over half of the United States and a Nevada mountain range. Upon reaching the drop zone, they leaped from the troop doors and quickly drifted to the valley below.

After the jumpers hit the sand, they met up at assembly areas, with weapons locked and loaded, to begin the seizure of a field landing strip and neighboring village.
Second BCT “Falcons” assisted the weapons school by participating in the airborne operation and were able to conduct training in an urban environment.

The troopers’ role in the exercise was to seize a fictional village after receiving intelligence that it was being terrorized by members of the Taliban.

Soldiers spoke to locals to gather information about Taliban forces in the village. None of the villagers were hostile, and some willingly offered information on the terrorist group’s actions, saidSgt. 1st Class Robert Ballard, a platoon sergeant for A Troop, 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd BCT.

One villager even requested to speak to Soldiers and drew a map to a bomb he saw being buried on the drop zone in front of the village.

As temperatures quickly plummeted by more than 30 degrees, troopers continued to pull security until nightfall, surveying the area around the village from every vantage point and stopping all locals to search them and subject them to questioning.
However, they never came into contact with Taliban members.

That evening, Soldiers were shuttled off the range in Chinook helicopters to nearby Creech Air Force Base, Nev., to conclude the exercise.

These types of exercises are chances to train in unfamiliar environments, instead of jumping the same drop zones and working the same ranges, said Col. Chris Gibson, 2nd BCT commander.
“We should be humbled by opportunities like this,” he said.

Gibson added that he would like for the entire brigade to participate in MAFEX next year.