Operational Access Exercise (JOAX) in
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T he 82nd Airborne Division held a Joint Operational Access Exercise (JOAX) in late June at Fort Bragg, N.C., to train for its Global Response Force mission and move forward in resetting the division’s readiness cycle after 12 years of combat deployments. The weeklong exercise began with a mass air- drop to simulate a forcible entry operation, landing approximately 1,500 paratroopers dur- ing the JOAX’s first night on Fort Bragg’s Hol- land Drop Zone (DZ) and adjacent DZs to oc- cupy multiple objectives. The 82nd Airborne tries to stage a JOAX three to four times a year to help prepare a brigade combat team (BCT) for the Global Re- sponse Force mission while exercising large- scale joint operations with the Air Force. 22 ARMY ■ September 2013 Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division exit a C- 17 Globemaster III transport during a mass jump held in conjunction with a Joint Operational Access Exercise (JOAX) conducted at Fort Bragg, N.C., in June. Below, from left, paratroopers go through sustained airborne training immediately before their JOAX jump: simulating aircraft onboard procedures; simulating canopy checks; and simulating aircraft door exits. JOAX:
Transcript of Operational Access Exercise (JOAX) in
The 82nd Airborne Division held a Joint
Operational Access Exercise (JOAX) in
late June at Fort Bragg, N.C., to train for
its Global Response Force mission and move
forward in resetting the division’s readiness
cycle after 12 years of combat deployments.
The weeklong exercise began with a mass air-
drop to simulate a forcible entry operation,
landing approximately 1,500 paratroopers dur-
ing the JOAX’s first night on Fort Bragg’s Hol-
land Drop Zone (DZ) and adjacent DZs to oc-
cupy multiple objectives.
The 82nd Airborne tries to stage a JOAX
three to four times a year to help prepare a
brigade combat team (BCT) for the Global Re-
sponse Force mission while exercising large-
scale joint operations with the Air Force.
22 ARMY � September 2013
Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division exit a C-17 Globemaster III transport during a mass jump held inconjunction with a Joint Operational Access Exercise(JOAX) conducted at Fort Bragg, N.C., in June. Below,from left, paratroopers go through sustained airbornetraining immediately before their JOAX jump: simulatingaircraft onboard procedures; simulating canopy checks;and simulating aircraft door exits.
JOAX:
September 2013 � ARMY 23
Text and PhotographsBy Dennis Steele
Senior Staff Writer
Global ResponseReadiness
24 ARMY � September 2013
The June JOAX was one of the largest held since combatoperations began in Afghanistan and Iraq, involvingapproximately 6,800 soldiers working with elements
of six air wings from the Air Force’s Air Mobility Com-mand and U.S. Air Force Reserve Command to conduct 24airborne operations. The 82nd Airborne’s 3rd BCT was theexercise’s primary ground unit.For the 82nd Airborne, the Global Response Force desig-
nation is an extension of the division’s traditional strategicmission to have a battalion on its way—”wheels up”—toany place in the world within 18 hours and the rest of abrigade wheels up in 96 hours. The Global Response Forcemission rotates among the 82nd Airborne’s BCTs.
Top, tape on a soldier’s helmetindicates chalk number and
pack shed assignment. Right,1SG Michael Onstine, a jump-master, conducts a simulateddoor check. Below left, a teamfrom Battery B, 1st Battalion,319th Airborne Field Artillery
Regiment, hooks up a howitzerfor airlift. Below right, a BlackHawk from the 82nd CombatAviation Brigade (CAB) lifts
off with the howitzer.
September 2013 � ARMY 25
Clockwise from top left,82nd CAB Black Hawkhelicopters sling load ahowitzer section; anOH-58 Kiowa from the82nd CAB is refueled ata forward arming andrefueling point (FARP)established by the 1stAttack and Reconnais-sance Battalion; armor-ers load rockets for live-fire training; refueledand rearmed, a Kiowatakes off from the FARP.
LTC Mark W. Stouffer, the 82nd Airborne Division’schief of operations, said, “The [JOAX] training objec-tives are to teach procedures for the Global Response
Force for the division. The division has many units that arepart of the Global Response Force. … One of the things weare training for is our procedures for outload, which is theprocess of getting our soldiers and equipment off of FortBragg and moving to wherever they need to in the world.Additionally, we exercise the airborne assault piece becausewe are an airborne division. It teaches the process of how toconduct an airborne assault and operations on the groundin an austere environment.
“Many of the skills that were very crucial to the last 12years of conflict are still crucial skills; however, the require-ments for a Global Response Force vary—anything fromhigh-intensity conflict or decisive-action operations downto counterinsurgency and humanitarian operations. Be-cause of that broad mission set, it’s important that we traina much broader skill set here. This joint operation accessexercise gives us the opportunity to train for a lot of thosethings. In this particular instance, we’re also workingchemical-biological weapons training for our soldiers toget them used to preventive measures they need to do, andfor our commanders on how to deal with the situationsthat may present themselves around the world right now.It’s always a threat that’s existed in the world, so it allowsus to get back into some of that.”
26 ARMY � September 2013
Right: the 1st Attack and Recon-naissance Battal-ion’s FARP opera-tion at a Fort Bragg
range; below, a pilot checks with
an armorer; belowright, armorersload .50-caliber
ammunition onto a Kiowa.
28 ARMY � September 2013
Soldier specialists from the 20th Support Command(Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and HighYield Explosives), based at Aberdeen Proving Ground,
Md., participated in the exercise.The 82nd Airborne’s division headquarters also exercised
evolving command and control procedures during the recentJOAX. The division put a small command cell in the field toevaluate available technologies and system capabilities.“What we’re exercising at the division level,” LTC Stouf-
fer said, “is the ability to take a division command andcontrol node, or Mission Command node—a portion outof the division—and push them forward into an austereenvironment to prove a division-level headquarters canprovide command and control for one or multiplebrigades and also can be a joint headquarters or coalition
headquarters. What is slightly differ-ent about this command post is thefact that we’re building this specifi-cally so it can go forward, and we cancontinue to leverage the resources ofthe remainder of our headquarters,which potentially stays at Fort Bragg,but only take a smaller element for-ward, which reduces our footprint inthe country, can potentially reducesome of our Air Force requirements toget us in there, and employs some ofour command and control systems,using reach-back capabilities to lever-age the intellectual horsepower fromour D Main [division headquarters].”He said JOAX exercises also help re-
set the 82nd Airborne Division.“This is a part of trying to get us
back into a cycle,” LTC Stouffer ex-plained. “We try every quarter to puttogether a larger joint exercise that al-
lows us to get some consistency and maintain our forces.That way we can have forces training to go onto the GlobalResponse Force, forces that are currently on the Global Re-sponse Force and forces that are potentially doing reset orother missions as the case may be. “The 82nd Airborne is the nucleus of the Global Re-
sponse Force, and we’re getting back to what the 82nd hasalways been ready to do, and that’s being the tip of thespear—18 hours or less.” �
Below, artillery rounds are lined up for live-fire exercises; below left, a gun crew from the 319th Airborne Field ArtilleryRegiment in action; and left, artillery ammunition canistersare cast aside as gun crew soldiers attach fuzes.
