The United States Army and Air Force continue to have close ties, and there was certainly no inter-service rivalry on display during the recent Warfighter 22-1 exercises that were held at Grafenwoehr, Germany from Sept. 27 to Oct. 5. The Air Force’s 505th Command and Control Wing provided support for the U.S. Army’s Mission Command Training Program, resulting in the validation of Victory Corps (V Corps) as a European Command allocated corps headquarters.

The multi-component exercise, which had a main command post in Grafenwoehr, Germany, and a rear command post in Fort Riley, Kansas, tested V Corps’ ability to mission command large-scale combat operations in a multi-national environment. The first two waves of V Corps soldiers arrived in Germany in early September.

The mission command proficiency of 1,402 joint service personnel, which included soldiers from the U.S. Army Europe and Africa V Corps, 3rd Infantry Division, 34th Infantry Division, and their respective subordinate units, were tested and honed during the execution of WFX 22-1.

“The warfighter is a certifying exercise, meaning it helps two and three-star divisional and corps headquarters prove that they are prepared to be warfighting commands in combat,” said Sgt. Maj. Michael Lamkins, operations, training, and plans (G3/5/7) sergeant major, V Corps. “That’s important for us because this headquarters is assigned to Europe, so we are the first corps to get the call if anything ever erupts in that theater.” 

Overcoming Distance

According to the U.S. Army, the eight-day exercise consisted of battle operations, a distinguished visitor’s day that involved multi-national leaders, and a position jump where equipment was taken down, moved, and then re-established in a different location within twenty-four hours, which took an extensive amount of training.

The rear command post was located at Fort Riley, Kansas, while the actual activity involving the ground units and air support played out in Germany. This created real-world communication challenges, which also required navigating issues around coronavirus and dealing with changes to the locations at the very last moment.

“The reason we forward deploy to Germany and Kansas is to stress all of our communication systems,” added Lamkins. “In this echelon, you are fighting in a way called distributed, meaning that everyone is not together. This forces us to work through the technical challenges of using all these systems over space and through time.”

The U.S. Air Force also reported that a substantial part of any warfighter exercise is about replicating the air component. In this particular mission that responsibility fell to the U.S. Air Force’s 505th CCW, Detachment 1, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. This total-force integrated unit’s mission was to provide airpower expertise and exercise support to the U.S. Army’s MCTP and act as the U.S. Air Force’s Air Warfare Center liaison to the U.S. Army’s Combined Arms Center.

“This was probably the most significant air component replication for a WFX that we’ve done to date,” said Air Force Col. Michael Goodman, 505th CCW, Det. 1 commander.

For WFX-22-1, a team of forty-seven Airmen from the 505th Combat Training Squadron, Hurlburt Field, provided the Air Operations Center (AOC) replication in coordination with the forward-deployed exercise control group from the 505th CCW, Det. 1. That team represented a full-spectrum air component replication to the U.S. Army training audience.

“Most WFX events utilize a corps to role-play the Combined Forces Land Component, but Gen. Cavoli, the U.S. Army Europe and Africa commander, took the opportunity to train V Corps, his assigned subordinate unit, directly as the CFLCC. The entire USAREUR-AF staff participated and imposed a level of discipline and realism that we’ve never seen during the WFX. It was impressive and helped ensure that the aligned Airmen got the most realistic we’ve seen to date.”

During the eight-day WFX 22-1 exercise, the 505th CTS’s team facilitated 232 sorties to present full-spectrum airpower, produced more than 19,000 airspace control measures, and published 43 air component planning documents to inform U.S. Army planners. It helped prepare the people, processes, and procedures to ready the joint force for Large Scale Combat Operations (LSCO) against near-peer adversaries.

The origins of V Corps dates back to 1918 when the unit was first activated during World War I in France. The Corps had engaged German forces in the Lorraine, St. Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne campaigns, and following the hard fighting was dubbed the “Victory Corps.” It later took part in the World War II D-Day invasion and liberation of Europe; defended Western Europe during the Cold War; saw service in the Balkans and in Iraq and Afghanistan; and has helped build U.S. bonds with America’s multinational partners across Europe. The motto of V Corps is “It Will Be Done.”

WFX 22-1 was V Corps’ final certifying exercise in becoming the U.S. Army’s fourth corps headquarters and America’s forward-deployed corps in Europe.

V Corps will assume enduring mission requirements in support of U.S. Army Europe and Africa as a split-based headquarters with locations at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Poznan, Poland. The return of the Victory Corps to Europe enhances security in the region and reassures our NATO and partner nations of the United States’ commitment to its European allies.

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites. He regularly writes about military small arms, and is the author of several books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com.

Image: Reuters