With over 6,000 participants from 10 countries and 22 states, Northern Strike was the department of Defense’s largest Joint, Reserve-component exercise of the year. This event is hosted annually at Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center and Aleena Combat Readiness Training Center, as well as over the skies of northern Michigan and Lake Huron.

Northern Strike is a Joint National Training Center accredited exercise, sponsored by the National Guard Bureau, to provide accessible, readiness-building opportunities for units from all branches of military service to achieve or sustain proficiency in conducting mission command, air, sea, and ground manoeuvre integration, including the synchronization of fires in a joint, multinational, decisive action, major combat operations environment that is scalable to meet unit resource levels.

Images:

Members of a joint Air National Guard medical team involving seven states load and unload patients onto a C-130 Hercules at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, Mich., on 26 July, 2019 during exercise Northern Strike 19. The training also requires medical members to set up a mobile patient staging area from the ground up then provide care for up to 50 patients. Once the staging area has been setup the training requires the loading, unloading and in-flight care of patients. Northern Strike 19 is a National Guard Bureau-sponsored exercise uniting approximately 5,700 service members and more than 20 states and seven coalition countries at the Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center and the Alpena CRTC, both located in Northern Michigan.

US Air National Guard photos by Senior Airman Ryan Zeski