TULSA  –   The Oklahoma Air National Guard will conduct a large-scale readiness exercise at the 138th Fighter Wing in Tulsa, Oklahoma beginning on June 1. 
 
A large-scale readiness exercise is an Air Force mandated exercise to evaluate and train Airmen for deployment. It is a tool that measures how efficient and capable units are at deploying aircraft, equipment and personnel to a forward location in response to a short-notice contingency tasking, and then operate and sustain those forces in a combat environment.
 
“This exercise is vitally important to ensuring the readiness of the 138th and our Airmen to perform our primary mission of providing lethal and agile airpower to combatant commanders worldwide,” says Col. Michael Meason, commander of the 138th Fighter Wing. “This most challenging of scenarios requires the full effort of all 1,200 of our Citizen-Airmen to succeed in true Tulsa fashion – with Strength & Honor.”
 
There will be limited access to the Tulsa Air National Guard Base during the exercise so that a simulated contingency or wartime environment can be effectively portrayed. During this exercise, the community may see an increase in F-16 flight operations to include evening and weekend flying during the exercise, but no disruption to air traffic surrounding the area is anticipated.
 
The exercise should conclude on or about the second week of June.