MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Wolmi-Do Fury, a four-day exercise, prepared service members for real-world wartime situations here Dec. 1-4.
The annual exercise included support from Marine Aircraft Group 12, Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 12 and Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadrons 224 and 225.
Wolmi-Do Fury is a MAG-12 level exercise, which integrates other flying squadrons deployed to Iwakuni.
While the flying squadrons conducted operations and missions, MAG-12 Headquarters and Operations supervised and oversaw everything.
“Downstairs in our war room, we kind of act as the quarterback,” said Maj. Robert J. George, MAG- 12 operations officer. “We run the show, we call the plays, and we track the squadrons and where they go.”
Wolmi-Do Fury, a large-force exercise, included close-air support training, urban CA S training, search-and-rescue drills as well as chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear training including vehicle decontamination.
Conducting both air and ground operations prepared the squadrons for combat missions that may come their way.
“A lot of the exercises we do focus on real-world operations that we would be required to do in a wartime situation,” said George. “We plan for those things ahead of time and then every so often we train for those events to stay prepared.”
During Top Gun training, pilots were trained using advanced air-to-air combat courses.
Pilots made contact with search and rescue assets and navigated to safety while evading enemy components during the search and rescue exercise.
On the ground side, Marines conducted day-to-day operations in Mission Oriented Protective Posture protective gear and went through a decontamination course.
With CBRN and decontamination training, the Marines became more confident in using their MOPP gear.
“The purpose of the exercise is to train the MAG-12’s command and control system, and for the squadrons to become proficient in these particular missions,” said Capt. Paul Holst, VMFA (AW )-224 pilot.
While business was performed as usual, and the training carried out is often done on a regular basis, Wolmi-Do Fury was on another level.
“We’re flying a lot more sorties. The first day this kicked off we flew 24 sorties, when we normally only fly 14, so there’s a lot more jets being put up,” said Capt. David Dusworth, VMFA (AW )-225 training officer.
In order to keep those jets in the air and receive the proper training, maintenance Marines performed above and beyond.
“Our maintenance Marines have done an outstanding job,” said Dusworth. “We were asked to put up eight jets and we actually put up 10 jets. We met all of our sortie requirements for MAG-12 and then today we put up four more jets than were required from our squadron just to make sure the mission got complete. The jets worked great the entire time.”
Not only did they perform during the four-day exercise, but prepared for two weeks prior to the exercise to make sure they were ready to accomplish the mission.
Along with getting the proper annual training, Marines also received integrated training with multiple units.
“(The integration) was a huge learning point for the exercise because we used a lot more integration with MAG-12 and the other squadrons instead of just the individual entities here,” said Dusworth. “We’re able to show that we can work together and accomplish the mission. We can take from it what we need to learn and improve on for next time.”
The exercise provided MAG-12 the opportunity to hone its operational capabilities and coordinate with multiple squadrons to further their warfighting capabilities as.