Yuma Marine squadron wins ‘Top Honors’
Marines with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (MAW) were recognized Aug. 17 for their performance in Exercise Red Flag 20-3, with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 211 from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma coming away with “Top Honors.”
Exercise Red Flag, which took place between Aug. 3 and Aug. 15 in the vicinity of the Nevada Test and Training Range in Southern Nevada, is an annual war game that has continued to evolve since 1975 and provides joint forces with realistic training to help them identify and overcome emerging threats.
VMFA-211 returned to MCAS
Yuma being named the Outstanding Unit of Red Flag 20-3 after their maintenance department was recognized for their outstanding effort, along with their intel unit taking the “Top S-2” award.
Throughout the two-week exercise the squadron exhibited “superior performance” and showcased its abilities to provide support and keep aircraft in the fight.
“Outstanding Unit is a huge achievement that was accomplished through the efforts of our maintainers, our intel and all of our supporting elements,” said Marine Corps Lt. Col. Joseph Freshour, the squadron’s commanding officer. “This exercise really gave us the opportunity to see where we stand as a squadron and highlights our ability to work as a team.”
While the F-35 has only participated in Red Flag since 2016, VMFA-211 has proved that with the right support the fifth-generation stealth fighter is more than capable of engaging multiple threats simultaneously, and provides the Marine Corps with a valuable asset against nearpeer adversaries.
Red Flag offers more than 1,900 possible targets, realistic air-to-air training, surface-to-air training and the opportunity for continuous day and night operations, which help squadrons successfully prepare to deploy, fight and win in any environment.
“The exercise offered an opportunity for our squadron to work and overcome complex problems in a scenario as close to combat as possible,” Freshour said. “Red Flag offered an opportunity for our experienced leadership to pass on their skills and knowledge to the next generation, while learning and refining skills of their own.”
Conducting what is considered one of the largest aerial war games in the world requires lengthy planning and coordination to ensure that all participants remain safe and healthy. Doing so during the COVID-19 pandemic made it even more challenging.
As such, members of the Air Force’s 99th Mission Support Group and 99th Medical Group also took part in the exercise, ensuring that all participants were following coronavirus pandemic mitigation protocols.
“Our team built a great plan to keep our service members safe without compromising the rigorous training Red Flag is known for,” said Air Force Col. William Reese, the commanding officer of the 414th Combat Training Squadron. “We know our enemies won’t call a ‘timeout’ for this pandemic. So we’ve focused on warfighting integration and strengthened our partnership with our professional aggressor forces to ensure we are ready to defeat any threat.”
Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211 has demonstrated its ability to remain technically and tactically proficient in all aspects of combat while practicing operational excellence even in the midst of a pandemic.