Coyote Storm 26.2 drills help DM airmen advance AEW 2.0 concepts

Airmen from the 355th Wing sharpened their ability to operate under fire during Coyote Storm 26.2, a four-day training exercise held Sept. 14-17 at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. The event advanced the Air Expeditionary Wing 2.0 approach, which pushes units to train well ahead of deployments and integrate across specialties so they can deploy as cohesive teams.

Wing officials said the exercise drew participation from across the enterprise, from aircrew to medical personnel, to build resilience and teamwork needed for contested environments.

“Medical care changes drastically in a contested environment,” said Staff Sgt. Madison Cromer, the 355th Operational Medical Readiness Squadron’s flight and operational medicine noncommissioned officer in charge. “Our scope of practice widens in a deployed setting, meaning the care I would normally do in an outpatient setting at the clinic turns into emergency medicine and stabilization.”

Cromer said the Mission Ready Airman mindset is reinforced by AEW 2.0’s emphasis on integrated training. “During our time training with the AEW, our medical team has been able to connect with our patients and create rapport with our team,” Cromer said. “During CS 26.1 at Tyndall [Air Force Base], I was able to train several security forces members on tactical combat casualty care and let them see firsthand how important their knowledge of lifesaving skills is.”

She noted her unit historically did not train non-medics for mass-casualty events, even though first responders are often the closest to an incident. “It’s crucial that every single one of our AEW members can provide care on the spot so that we can save lives,” Cromer said.

Cromer described scenarios that required improvisation—fashioning tourniquets from available materials, hardening IV setups for austere conditions, and repurposing clothing to control bleeding or support injured limbs. “When in a contested environment, simple things become hard,” she said. “It is so important that we are placed in simulated hostile environments to see how we will act as most people are unaware how they will respond when something bad happens.”

She added that repetition under pressure is essential: “We practice our medical skills not until we can do it right, but until we can’t get it wrong, ensuring that our skills are muscle memory and we are able to save the lives of those around us,” Cromer said. “Our number one goal is to get our members back into the fight.”

Chaplain (Capt.) Mark Wagner, a 355th Wing Staff Agency chaplain, supported the wing operations center during the exercise, where he observed combat search and rescue events and practiced command-and-control coordination. “Serving within the command and control environment gave me a clearer understanding of how commanders make decisions under pressure,” Wagner said. “It helped me align chaplain support with the operational tempo while ensuring service members had access to confidential care and spiritual support when it mattered most.”

“In a deployed environment, my role is to provide confidential pastoral care, strengthen resilience and ensure every service member, regardless of faith tradition or no faith tradition, has support when they need it,” he said, adding that the chaplain corps’ mission extends beyond counseling to advising leaders on morale and readiness. “Chaplains operate wherever the force operates. We are here to listen, advise commanders on morale and spiritual readiness, and help service members navigate the pressures of deployment,” Wagner said.

By pairing realistic scenarios with cross-discipline teamwork, Coyote Storm 26.2 aimed to strengthen the 355th Wing’s readiness and refine the skills Airmen need to deploy and operate in high-threat environments.