DVIDS – News – The Raven Lifestyle: How Ravens Phoenix are forged to succeed

What makes an elite warrior? Intense training? A shaved-rusy spirit? Training at the point of physical exhaustion? Is it a fierce determination in the face of unforeseen dangers? It may be the desire to make the world better. The answer, of course, is yes. It takes all these features and much more to answer this call.
At the joint Lewis-McChord base, one of these elite units is simply known as Phoenix Ravens. As a subset of the 627th Security Squadron Forces, the Ravens consist of a small group of highly specialized aviators who act as advisers, security and when the chips are on the table, protectors for the teammate deploying to austere and hostile environments.
They may not have the most brilliant equipment, or the most advanced combative equipment, but what they have is from each other. The link that these men and women share through the trial and the grain allow them to mix three members in a coherent team each time they approach the flight line.
“I know for myself and for the people in this room and in this program, it is the types of people who will say:” I’m going to go. ” I do not care about the difficulty. I don’t care that I am only two hours of sleep or get a quarter of 2 p.m. to 2 p.m., “said a member of the senior team Daniil Smirnov, 627th SFS Phoenix Raven. “These are the people I want to be.”
The missions of the Ravens of Phoenix take them around the world where they are not only responsible for protecting planes and the crew, but to maintain constant vigilance and deliberate communication towards all potential threats. These fighters allow their crew to execute the global air transport mission today at each stage of the process.
The senior plane Matthew Watts, 627th SFS Phoenix Raven Team, member of the team, described a particular mission of which he was outside the spring of 2024 which took place in Haiti. The C-17 Globemaster III which had originally transported to Haiti for a crew that provided humanitarian aid, ended up breaking for 12 days. The mission had only included three members of the Phoenix Raven team, but after a quarter of 20 hours, they had an urgent need for support.
Watts was called for the rescue mission in Haiti with only a six -hour notice.
“We were doing 12 -hour teams, teams of three people 24 hours a day and I worked on the night quarter,” said Watts. “About three days, I was at the Embassy of the United States to rest with the other two people with whom I worked, and we received a call saying:” Hey, we need that you come here as soon as possible. “”
Watts then described how American entrepreneurs, Haitian police and the Haitian army informed the team that there was a large gang which planned to attack the airport. Watts and its other team members created tactical control points around their plane and worked for 36 hours in a row. Fortunately, the attack never came because of the intervention of the embassy.
“Raven becomes a lifestyle in itself,” said senior aviator Brian Bowman, 627th SFS Phoenix Raven Team. “You will be a lot on the road. You will see many new places. You will meet a lot of new people and you will have to stay flexible and always a packaged bag and ready to leave. ”
Could you ask yourself what it takes to become a Raven Phoenix? The answer is, of course, a series of physical, mental and emotional training with various degrees of intensity, or to be more succinct, it is necessary to devote yourself fully to the lifestyle of the crow.
“I wanted to do more,” said Raymond Egipeaco, Airman, Raymond Egipeac, 627th member of the SFS Phoenix Raven team. “I really wanted to provide and do something for the Air Force and have a better career for me. It was then that I contacted the Master Sergeant Woll, a Raven program manager here, and he told me about pre-rad. ”
The Pré-Raven course is a two-week lesson that all the potential Ravens of Phoenix must follow before frequenting the school at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. The two -week assessment includes intensive physical training sessions, a long baton strike training, several red man fights (counters of sticks against instructors or other students with protective equipment) and verbal judo in addition to the additional documents necessary to attend the school. The school itself develops this training while working in vast class and tactical training, higher level fights, combat training in close neighborhoods and culminating events in the form of field training exercises.
“After having graduated from the Raven school on March 28 (2025), I felt like I had accomplished, you know, everything I wanted, as far as being a brand new aviator who has just joined the Air Force,” said Egipeiac. “Beyond that, I can’t wait to fly and do missions.”
The Ravens Phoenix are a united group of devoted aviator turners who are ready to be loaded with the drop of a hat. They are engaged with tenacity and a desire to provoke a positive world change.
The Ravens Phoenix are one of the most elite units of the Air Force and for a good reason. Their dedication is obvious, their training is intense and their desire to go where others may not want to do so is clear. The intensity of our McChord Ravens team is not only shown in their training, but also its passion for work.
“I never thought once in all my life, I would never go to Cyprus, but of course, the Raven program sent me to Cyprus, and I have to go explore,” said Smirnov. “This program, I think, did a lot for me. I think that has changed my life for the best, because now I live a lifestyle, this lifestyle of Raven. ”