GOODFELLOW AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Students from the 315th Training Squadron conducted their Operation Lone Star capstone at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, Nov. 28 to Dec. 2.
Operation Lone Star is the first time during technical training that all four intelligence career fields under the 315th TRS collaborate in a simulated combat environment.
“Teamwork is the biggest part of this exercise,” said Tech. Sgt. Jessica Ford, 315th TRS Integrated Operations Exercise section chief. “Students have to get through this exercise as a team while applying everything they have learned in their respective courses. It’s really amazing watching them use concepts that they’ve learned and actually put them in motion.”
Students spend five days collecting and utilizing data to create actionable intel to disseminate to instructors who act as leaders to make accurate and timely decisions.
“Our students have a varied and dynamic intelligence career ahead of them,” said Lt. Col. Liane Zivitiksi, 315th TRS commander. “Graduates can find themselves delivering intelligence reports to decision-makers to help influence tactical, operational, and even strategic-level activities.”
Operation Lone Star has improved how it challenges students by modernizing the learning curriculum to reflect current threats.
“We are aligning the exercise with the National Defense Strategy to focus more on near-peer threats,” said Tech. Sgt. Jamaal Howard, 315th TRS Integrated Operations Exercise joint all domain command and control non-commissioned officer in charge. “We have to keep up with what our leadership deems as the most capable and most formidable threat of the future. If we train to outdated threats, then the students won’t learn what they are actively walking into.”
As the way we fight war continues to advance, so must the way we teach. Operation Lone Star will begin to integrate not only different courses within the 315th TRS but also students in the Human Intelligence career field located at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
“We’re trying to ensure that we are making the scenario as realistic as possible and utilize as many career fields,” said Howard. “That’s how the operational Air Force works, and that’s what we’re here to get them ready for.”