152nd Air Operations Group Hosts New York Air National Guard's first Virtual Flag Exercise Published Feb. 5, 2015 By Senior Airman Duane Morgan 174th Attack Wing HANCOCK FIELD AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, SYRACUSE, NY -- The 152nd Air Operations Group will be conducting the first New York Air National Guard Virtual Flag training exercise on Feb. 18-26. The exercise will be conducted with the support of the Air Force's Distributed Mission Operations Center (DMOC). The Distributed Mission Operations Center (DMOC) is located at Kirtland Air Force Base (AFB) in New Mexico and is the center for distributed combat training exercises and testing. Through input received from DMOC's integrated and constructive simulations, members of the 152nd will practice tactics and procedures under realistic threat scenarios. "Personnel will be getting real world training in a virtual environment," said Maj. Kevin Groom, primary exercise planner for the 152nd. This exercise plays an important role in maintaining the 152nd service member's combat mission readiness skills while also giving them the opportunity to train alongside their active duty counterparts. "We are going to have over 100 people from other units across the country participating as well as several units from Germany," said Groom. "The units participating from Germany are actually U.S. forces that are stationed in that country." Active duty Army and Air Force personnel will be participating in the exercise. The 152nd intends to host this exercise every two to three years.