West Virginia Air National Guard stationed at McLaughlin Air National Guard Base in Charleston
WV Press Release Sharing
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Approximately 400 Airmen from the 130th Airlift Wing, which is stationed at McLaughlin Air National Guard Base in Charleston, will deploy Thursday to complete Fly Away Readiness Exercise Validation (FLARE-V) at the Gulfport Combat Readiness Training Center in Gulfport, Mississippi.
FLARE-V 2023 will mark the unit’s second large-scale fly away exercise since converting to the C-130J model. In 2020, the 130th Airlift Wing was selected by the United States Air Force to receive eight C-130J-30 Super Hercules aircraft and has since transitioned from the 1990s era H3-model to the new J-model.
“We are eager to participate in FLARE-V with the knowledge we acquired from our exercise earlier this year,” said Col. Bryan Preece, commander of the 130th Airlift Wing. “This will give us the opportunity to demonstrate that we are an agile and capable unit that’s prepared to operate in a war time environment.”
The unit will receive hands-on experience in command & control, biological, nuclear, chemical, and radiological decontamination, tactical combat casualty care, and career field-specific tasks. The exercise is intended to further unit readiness, as well as physical and mental resilience by testing the airmen’s understanding of wartime principles against a simulated near peer adversary.
For additional information on FLARE-V, visit:
https://www.dvidshub.net/video/895591/col-bryan-preece-talks-about-flare-v
