ANG a nerve center for combat training
· One of four National Guard Combat Readiness Centers
· Provides combat environment for thousands of warfighters
· Uses ranges at Camp Shelby and over the Gulf of Mexico
It was a weekday at the Air National Guard Combat Readiness Training Center, and not an unusual one. Every few minutes the air was punctuated by the sound of jets coming and going. Some were airliners taking off or landing at Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport, but most were warplanes.
Welcome to the nerve center of an impressive array of combat training designed to keep American fighting at the top of their game.
The Air National Guard base on the eastern edge of Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport is the smallest base in Harrison County, whether measured by personnel or acreage. But the level of activity is impressive by any standard.
“Our sole purpose is to provide an integrated, year-round, realistic environment, facilities, airspace and ranges, to prepare the Air National Guard and other military units to go to war,” said Col. Lance Hester, commander of the CRTC.
In any given year, thousands of pilots come to Gulfport to engage in mock combat and hone their skills in case the real thing comes along. It’s an airborne schoolhouse equipped with a state-of-the-art, multimillion-dollar combat training system that keeps track of every move, good or bad.
On this particular day in August there were 50 sorties at the airport, 20 bombing runs and four C-17 assault landings at Camp Shelby, and 20 sorties over the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico range. On the ground there were 800 uniformed visitors on base. The most intimidating activity might have been the personnel manning machine gun placements.
And it’s all fairly routine. In a typical month, the Gulfport ANG center accounts for 25,000 training days.
As if that’s not enough activity, over the past four or five years the ANG has also served as a launching point for troop deployments. An average of 40,000 troops have flown out of the airport in some 700 military and charter flights.
The base
The Trent Lott Readiness Training Center takes up 220 acres on the eastern edge of Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport. In addition to the Combat Readiness Training Center, the complex is also home to the 255th Air Control Squadron, 209th Civil Engineering Squadron, the Army National Guard’s 1108th helicopter maintenance depot and a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency drug interdiction unit.
Hester said the CRTC has 120 military personnel, 100 civilians and 55 contractors. It had an operating budget last year of $14 million, of which payroll accounted for $4.5 million for both military and civilians.
In addition, the CRTC accounts for some $20 million in contracts, and the construction total for fiscal year 2008 was $44 million. Another $4.5 million is current “under design.”
Hester estimated the total economic impact of the base in fiscal year 2008 was about $50 million.
The Air National Guard training site was established at the airport in 1954 and renamed the Combat Readiness Training Center in 1990. The CRTC, which has no warplanes permanently assigned to the base, is one of four operated by the Air National Guard to provide all branches of the military, active duty, Reserve and Guard, with a training environment with land and sea ranges. The other CRTCs are in Savannah, Ga., Alpena, Mich., and Volk Field, Wis.
When units are scheduled to deploy, they come to the CRTC to go through a practice run of what they’ll do overseas, including setting up everything that will be needed.
Far-flung assets
The CRTC’s assets are far flung.
It utilizes two runways at the busy Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport. One runway is the 9,000 foot east-west and the other the 6,000 foot north-south.
Another asset used by the CRTC is Camp Shelby, south of Hattiesburg. The largest state-owned training site in the nation, it is nearly 135,000 acres and features an air-to-ground range and low altitude airspace to provide realistic ground attack scenarios.
South of Gulfport are the vast ranges over the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The offshore airspace is fully instrumented for recording air-to-air engagements.
“We have fighters over the gulf every day,” Hester said.
At the heart of the aerial training is a multimillion-dollar, state-of-the-art P5 Combat Training System, which provides training and debriefing capability and combines sophisticated electronic threat and scoring systems as well.
Combined, the Gulfport center, Camp Shelby and Gulf of Mexico provide the CRTC with supersonic airspace, gunnery ranges, facilities and equipment to enhance combat readiness of the nation’s fighting forces.
The activity at the base has actually picked up over the past few years because of another activity. For around five years the ANG center has become a key embarkation and debarkation center for all branches of the military.
The base has averaged 40,000 per year who leave Gulfport for deployment to a variety of locations. Hester said the huge aircraft many residents see flying into and out of the airport on many occasions are these deployment flights. He said the deployments account for some 700 aircraft a year, mostly chartered.
Lost in the mix
Hester said he thinks the Guard activity at the base is sometimes overlooked when people think about the military. Part of the reason, he said, may be because the base is so much smaller than Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi.
“A lot of folks in Gulfport, Miss., have no idea this place exists,” said Hester, who said that when he’s out in the community wearing his uniform, many people assume he’s from Keesler. When he tells them he’s based at the airport and with the Air National Guard, some say they are unfamiliar with the mission.
“This area is a big secret. They know the Seabees, they know Keesler,” he said. “We get lost in the mix.”
But he said that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Guard members are to a large extent people who have grown up in the area and are already highly integrated into their community.
He said the only time they are seen is when they get involved in community activities.
“I think the big difference between us and active duty is, most of the folks who work here grew up here. I think there’s a little more sense of community,” Hester said.
There’s also an age difference between the Guard and active duty. The Guard includes a lot of personnel with prior service in active duty, and that means a higher median age.
“I think it’s a little older group with a little more vested interest,” said Hester. Besides, the Guard personnel know they’re not going to be moving.
Future
While the nation’s military tries to determine the best way to deal with both conventional and unconventional threats in an age of tight budgets, Hester thinks that no matter how the military goes, the ANG activities in Gulfport have a secure future.
“I really think what we do here is going to be relevant, it doesn’t matter what the conflict or potential threat,” said Hester. He said military units “will still have to go somewhere, still have to deploy. Training is still going to be relevant. We’re going to be in business.”
