With Air Mobility Command's premier exercise Mobility Guardian on the horizon at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, new 62nd Airlift Wing commander Col. Rebecca J. Sonkiss sat down with The Ranger newspaper to discuss what the exercise means to participating units and how it will affect total Air Force readiness.

The Ranger:  What impact will Mobility Guardian have on the 62nd Airlift Wing (AW), as well as participating individual servicemembers?

Col. Sonkiss: Mobility Guardian is a total JBLM team effort. Airmen and soldiers from across the base will have a role in executing Air Mobility Command's (AMC) largest exercise in its 25-year history. Even those members of the team not directly involved in the exercise will help to make the event a success because despite this large-scale exercise, the 62nd Airlift Wing's mission to deliver safe and reliable global airlift will not slow down. AMC launches an aircraft every 2.8 minutes, a figure that Team McChord heavily contributes to. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the members of JBLM in advance for all the time and effort that they are putting into making Exercise Mobility Guardian a success.

Ranger: Why was JBLM chosen to host Mobility Guardian?

Sonkiss: As the Department of Defense's Premier Power Projection Platform in the Pacific, JBLM is uniquely suited to host Mobility Guardian. During this exercise, JBLM will be utilized as the Initial Staging Base while other airfields at Moses Lake (Grant County), McAllister Field and Fairchild AFB will be utilized along with the 320,000 acres in the nearby Yakima Training Center to exercise the full mission set of the Mobility Air Forces to include airlift, aerial refueling, aeromedical evacuation and air mobility support.

Ranger: As commander, what do you hope to impart on your unit after going through the exercise?

Sonkiss: Previously, McChord Air Force Base was the perennial host of AMC's Rodeo, with the most recent competition taking place in 2011. Generations of AMC crew members came to know the AMC Rodeo and associate it with McChord as a competition that celebrated perfection in the mobility mission sets. My experience is predominantly combat operations - I see Mobility Guardian as a welcome shift to keep our forces razor sharp to operate in a contested environment and integrate with our joint partners during planning, deployment, execution and redeployment. It is how we should train.

Ranger: What is the significance of shifting from the competition-focus of the AMC Rodeo to the readiness focus of Mobility Guardian?

Sonkiss: The shift from Rodeo, which focused on pure competition, to the exercise format, will emphasize practicing "the way we fight," which is significant. As Gen. Everhart (AMC commander) declared, "interoperability with our joint and allied partners is crucial to be able to move people, planes and cargo into contested environments around the world." In this exercise, the focus is not to compete for trophies and accolades. Instead, we are looking at ways to practice our tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) and improve them in training so that the lessons do not have to be learned in combat.

Ranger: How will the inclusion of so many foreign partners affect the outcome of Mobility Guardian?

Sonkiss: Including partner nations in the planning and execution of Exercise Mobility Guardian emphasizes "train the way we fight." While there would be significant benefit from holding a large-scale exercise with only U.S. forces, it would not exercise the way our nation engages in global operations. Just as important as being able to interact with our sister services, we need to be able to integrate with allies and international partners to accomplish our mission. Exercises such as Mobility Guardian allow these lessons to be learned during training and will aid in future collaboration between our nations.

Ranger: What is the benefit of building such an extensive network of collaboration among partners?

Sonkiss: In the short term, the lessons learned from the exercise will highlight what we are doing right, but more importantly will identify areas of improvement. The lessons learned from this exercise are likely to shape the future of training in the Mobility Air Forces and among that of our partner nations to improve our TTPs. Allowing us to hone our skills, refine our craft and ensure that lessons learned are spread among the entire Mobility Air Force can potentially save American lives and taxpayer dollars when employed in combat.