Air National Guard engineers train for contested operations at Patriot Forge II

FORT DEVENS, Mass. — Nearly 200 Air National Guard civil engineers from across New England spent Aug. 10-15 at Fort Devens honing combat skills designed to keep airpower flowing in contested environments during the second iteration of the Patriot Forge field training exercise.

Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force Airmen from the 101st, 102d, 103d and 157th Civil Engineer Squadrons — representing Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut — trained together on tasks that go beyond their trade specialties. Over six days, they navigated without GPS, conducted convoy operations, patrolled on foot through dense terrain, provided Tactical Combat Casualty Care under fire, and executed integrated base defense.

“Patriot Forge II is all about readiness,” said Lt. Col. Brett Bailey, commander of the 157th Civil Engineer Squadron and the exercise’s officer in charge. “That’s the biggest thing. We’re accomplishing our readiness requirements here.”

The event emphasized expeditionary proficiency to support Agile Combat Employment and distributed airpower, establishing a common standard across the region. Training was organized into four full-day modules — mounted operations, dismounted operations, land navigation and integrated base defense — that built from classroom instruction to increasingly complex scenarios.

Convoy drills had students rotate through driver, radio operator and turret roles to practice communications and crew coordination in unfamiliar terrain. Dismounted missions pushed teams to move with roughly 50 pounds of gear, maintain security, and treat simulated casualties while reacting to opposing forces. Base defense instruction covered entry control, searches, defensive fighting positions and reacting to contact, culminating in teams defending a notional installation.

“Patriot Forge II pooled personnel, vehicles, instructors and logistical support from across New England, creating a training event that would be difficult for any single squadron to execute independently,” Bailey said. “The scale of the exercise allowed units to leverage their collective resources while exposing Airmen to teammates they may not normally work with.”

The land navigation phase returned Airmen to map, compass and pace count skills across a roughly 300-acre wooded course — a hedge against degraded technology. “At any point, our adversaries could disable [GPS] communications and make it impossible for us to do our job normally, so we need to learn the manual side of it,” said Staff Sgt. Elijah St. Pierre, a water and fuels systems maintainer with the 157th Air Refueling Wing.

Instructors also stressed that every Airman may be called to protect the mission. “It’s everyone’s job to defend the base,” said Master Sgt. Jordan Thompson, a communications specialist with the 157th Civil Engineer Squadron and lead instructor for the base defense module. “The warrior mindset is very important. It’s not just going out and digging holes. Just because you get deployed to a location in which you feel safe, it doesn’t mean you are. You should always be ready.”

Long, hot summer days, full combat loads and unfamiliar responsibilities were designed to add stress while creating space for leadership development. Senior leaders intentionally stepped back to let company-grade officers, junior NCOs and Airmen make decisions and learn from mistakes under cadre oversight. “Give them a safe space to figure things out and try new things so that when they’re put in situations downrange in the future, it’s not the first time they’ve experienced it,” Bailey said.

The regional model debuted at Fort Devens in 2024 as a proof of concept and expanded this year, with the 157th Civil Engineer Squadron leading and participating wings supplying instructors, equipment, logistics and planning. Army National Guard partners from Maine and New Hampshire supported movements with UH-60 Black Hawks, adding a joint dimension.

Organizers said the approach aligns with the Air Force’s push for Mission Ready Airmen who can contribute beyond a single specialty. Patriot Forge II aimed not to replace civil engineers’ technical expertise, but to ensure they can move to, protect and sustain the mission when support is limited and threats are dynamic.