Master Sgt. Jon Nelson, assigned to the 101st Security Forces Squadron, participates in air base ground defense training

Maine Air National Guard Conducts Airbase Ground Defense Training

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Maine Air National Guard Conducts Capstone Training at Pickerel Pond

Members of the Maine Air National Guard’s 101st Security Forces Squadron completed a rigorous field training exercise at Pickerel Pond, culminating more than a year of preparation focused squarely on airbase ground defense.

Planning and coordinating the multi-day operation proved to be a significant logistical hurdle. The unit had to bring together personnel, heavy equipment, and resources while coordinating extensively with outside partners to ensure the training ran smoothly. The Maine Army National Guard provided vital logistical backing, supplying UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to transport personnel and add a complex operational layer to the exercise scenario.

Returning to Core Competencies

Capt. Joshua Stevens, commander of the 101st Security Forces Squadron, emphasized that the exercise represents a fundamental return to the original tenets of their profession.

“This is just a return to the original foundations, one of the tenets, one of the core competencies of our profession. We have to be good at this. This is what’s going to be asked of us: to go to an austere location to seize an area that can support air traffic, to hold it and be able to push whatever the manpower and materials are through that area and take the fight to the enemy,” Stevens said.

The unit selected Pickerel Pond at the direct request of participating Airmen who wanted to train in a completely new environment. Because most of the personnel had never trained at the site before, the location offered a contained, unfamiliar setting that closely simulated the challenges of an active deployment.

Maine Air National Guard Conducts Airbase Ground Defense Training
Photo: nationalguard.mil

Teamwork in Austere Environments

Tech. Sgt. Philip Slick pointed out that the immersive nature of the field exercise underscored the necessity of mutual support among all participants.

Slick said that when they are doing this, they are not out there alone and that it all comes down to teamwork, adding that when everyone starts thinking like that, then you have a really good cohesive team.

The primary objective centered on preparing personnel to defend an installation against simulated threats and rehearse operations required to retake an airfield seized by an opposing force. This hands-on environment gave Security Forces an opportunity to apply their skills directly, identify operational bottlenecks, and fine-tune their response strategies for future deployments.

Organizers Hope Airmen Recognize Their Own Operational Capabilities

Following the conclusion of the exercise, leadership expressed gratitude to wing leadership for backing the initiative, as well as to the Army National Guard for providing site access and helicopter support. Stevens commended the squadron for their dedication and hard work in the field.

Reflecting on the capstone event, organizers hope the experience recalibrates how Airmen view their own operational limits.

“Hopefully, as people reflect on this, they understand that they are more capable than they believed themselves to be, they understand what it is that we’re asking them to do and they’ve been shown what right looks like and they’re able to put that into practice. Hopefully, we showed them that their own capability was higher than they may well have thought, which will do nothing but really accelerate our training as we get ready for the next event,” Stevens said.

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