N.C. Wing Flies Intercept Mission

Capt. Lynne Albert
Assistant Public Affairs Officer
North Carolina Wing

The North Carolina Wing assisted the U.S. Air Force’s 336th Fighter Squadron with airborne intercept training in eastern North Carolina, marking the wing’s first intercept training with the 4th Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.

The Fertile Keynote exercise was designed to provide low-altitude intercept, visual identification and UAS (unmanned aircraft system) intercept training. A North Carolina Wing plane served as a target,simulating a slow-moving aerial threat into restricted airspace. The 336th’s F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets executed multiple intercepts of the CAP aircraft in a variety of training scenarios .

The North Carolina Wing’s aircrew for the training exercise was Lt. Col. Christopher Bailey, mission pilot; Brendan Kearns, mission observer; and Rich Tedesco thermal imaging system operator.

“The training worked out seamlessly,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Chad Shenk, assistant operations officer for the 336th Fighter Squadron.

“Overall, the exercise went extremely well for this first run,” Bailey said. “The North Carolina Wing and the 336th executed excellent training for both organizations. I hope this exercise provided a lot of value to the 4th Fighter Wing and helped ready their airmen for combat situations.