Team Fairchild exercises at Beale AFB Published March 7, 2019 By Senior Airman Jesenia Landaverde 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- Airmen from the 92nd Air Refueling Wing practiced providing Global Reach during an Installation Mission Assurance Exercise at Beale Air Force Base, California, Feb. 25-28, 2019. IMAX is a readiness exercise used to validate and improve upon Fairchild Airmen’s ability to provide Rapid Global Mobility. “Our missions can take us anywhere in the globe, but Beale was close,” said Lt. Col Kevin Parsons, 93rd Air Refueling Squadron commander. “This allowed us to get all the training we needed, and were able to conduct the mission quickly to get results much faster. We also have sufficient support at Beale to exercise without setting up everything ourselves, which is more realistic to a real-world situation.” Beale AFB provided Fairchild Airmen support through vehicle operations, aerial port, aircraft support equipment and lodging. Additionally, the 940th ARW Air Force Reserve unit at Beale partnered with Fairchild to practice air refueling capabilities in a simulated combat zone. “The exercise was invaluable for all units that participated,” said Staff Sgt. Michael O’Harrow, 92nd Maintenance Squadron aircraft structural maintenance specialist. “Being in a forward location made this a lot more real. Everyone who came out here did double duty and pulled their weight to get the mission done.” Moving Team Fairchild assets away from home station helps ensure Airmen practice mission readiness and maintain air superiority in a realistic scenario. “It’s no small thing to take more than 100 Airmen from one location to another,” Parson said. “In this case, we were doing it in order to present ourselves in an alternate location to generate our aircraft. Even a single missed piece may cause delays or make the mission impossible once we are at the location.” Exercises like these are essential to maintaining Team Fairchild’s ability to provide Global Reach anywhere, anytime. “The key to this exercise for us was to rapidly establish command and control operations and the ability to get up in the air,” said Col. Russell Davis, 92nd Operations Group commander. “We exercised the ability to go out to a new location, get our aircraft generated and ensure they can refuel to deter any adversary potentially threatening the American way of life.”