BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (WOOD) — With thousands of troops in Michigan this month for Northern Strike 25-2, part of the massive annual exercise is testing out-of-state airmen in Battle Creek.
In a section of the Battle Creek Air National Guard Base Friday, airmen in helmets and body armor manned machine guns atop of Humvees. Others kept a lookout in mobile guard towers. Members ran an airbase for the training area, coordinating with another makeshift base near Oscoda.
As the day’s exercise kicked off, three booms were heard around the perimeter. Dressed in suits to protective suits, airmen rushed to move members pretending to be wounded. A few airmen dressed in tattered uniforms and fake injuries were checked out by an air crew before being evacuated by helicopter. It was a part of a medevac training scenario undertaken by the 22nd Air Task Force.
The Washington state-based 22nd was activated in late 2024 with a focus on operating in contested and degraded conditions. The unit is trained to set up and run airbase operations with logistics, security and more…