NEW CASTLE AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Del. -- On Saturday 16-July-2022, the 166th Airlift Wing forward deployed 53 members (including three from the 189th Airlift Wing from Arkansas) and two C-130H aircraft to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to participate in Special Mission Silver Arrow.
Special Mission Silver Arrow is a rotation mission meant to plus up intratheater airlift capability. Our personnel will operate in the US EUROPEAN COMMAND (USEUCOM) Area of Responsibility (AOR) to support European Deterrence Initiative (EDI) activities while also augmenting USEUCOM airlift capacity with C-130 aircraft.
All members are voluntarily activated pursuant to 10 USC 12301d which applies to U.S. reserve components. They will mainly be conducting tactical airland operations transporting personnel and equipment from one location in the AOR to another location in the AOR. There is also a potential to participate in Joint Airborne/Air Transportability Training (JA/ATT) missions and aeromedical evacuation training missions.
This is also a great opportunity for our members to plan a large movement from the Continental United States to Europe. Although the 166th Airlift Wing participated in previous Silver Arrow rotations in 2017 and 2019, this is the first opportunity of this nature for many of our members. Although the vast preponderance of this tasking is filled by the 166th Operations Group and 166th Maintenance Group, the 166th Mission Support Group also provided personnel.