SALINAS, Puerto Rico - The Puerto Rico Air National Guard’s 156th Civil Engineer Squadron recently hosted 14 Air National Guard units for an emergency management Deployment for Training.
Air Guard units from the U.S. Virgin Islands, New York, New Jersey, South Carolina, Hawaii, Oklahoma, California and Vermont participated in the May 13-19 training, exercising capabilities through multiple combat-simulated scenarios at Camp Santiago Joint Training Center in Salinas and Fort Allen in Juana Diaz.
The 2025 Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico Deployment for Training involved two years of planning and about 120 training hours. The training measured the participating units’ mission readiness by simulating the challenges of an austere location to prepare Airmen to execute the Agile Combat Employment Concept within the United States Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility.
“The Puerto Rico Air National Guard provides a unique platform for ANG units to conduct ACE-focused training and develop mission-ready Airmen, thanks to our strategic location and readily available facilities,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Evaristo Orengo, commander, 156th Wing. “The Caribbean’s resemblance to the Pacific region enhances our ability to prepare for operations in that theater.”
Leveraging the advantages of location, terrain and facilities, this training focused on sharpening the skills of emergency management specialists to meet evolving mission demands and their ability to contribute to great power competition.
“This DFT was designed to qualify emergency management specialists in their most recent career field education plan, strengthening their knowledge and mission readiness to be an essential piece of the great power competition,” said U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Orlando Guevarez, emergency management superintendent, 156th CES, and one of the primary training planners.
U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Paul Clementi, emergency management superintendent with the 107th CES, New York Air National Guard, said one of the event’s key goals was to provide Airmen the tools to achieve 80% readiness in the new emergency management career field core tasks.
“The training focused on creating a different environment where emergency specialists were able to execute their CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear) mission in an austere location by assembling into small teams and exerting leadership among the non-commissioned officers in charge of their exercise injects,” Clementi said. “Puerto Rico is a perfect location to train our Airmen for the future fight since it has similar geographical characteristics to the USINDOPACOM area of responsibility.”
U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. James Fitzgerald, the region two emergency management chief with the 158th Fighter Wing, Vermont Air National Guard, said having participants from several units working as a cohesive team helps to better execute the ACE concept in a combat environment where participants operate from different locations simultaneously.
“Even though it is not our primary job as emergency specialists, we are conditioning our Airmen to be mission-ready by operating their own security and self-sustainability in contingency scenarios,” Fitzgerald said. “It is important to empower our NCOs [noncommissioned officers] to articulate and execute operational decisions in training events like this one; here, nothing is fluid, and they are constantly adapting.”