70 ISRW hosts America 250 celebration, resiliency day

Airmen and families of the 70th Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance Wing participated in a day of readiness and resilience at Fort George G. Meade, Md., June 5, 2026.

The Wing came together to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States by incorporating a day of togetherness and family with a focus on resiliency. A resiliency day is a designated pause in normal military operations to allow Airmen to recenter and focus on strengthening their mental, emotional, social, physical and spiritual well-being. The focus on these core tenants of resiliency is part of Comprehensive Airmen Fitness and critical to ensuring Airmen are ready to execute crisis or contingency operations at any time.

Comprehensive Airman Fitness or CAF is a holistic, strength-based framework utilized by the U.S. Air Force and Space Force designed to build resilience and total well-being. CAF emphasizes a cultural focus on an active lifestyle. The men and women of the 70th ISRW utilized their resiliency day to focus on three core areas across the day, physical fitness, warrior ethos, and a culture of service and comradery. The full day of events consisted of a two-mile run, two-hours of base cleanup and resiliency activities before coming together as a community for a picnic and competitive sports tournament.

“Events like this are really important to bring everyone together,” said Col. Charles L. Carter, 70th ISRW, commander. “We want to ensure everyone knows they’re part of a team and they’re part of not just a mission team, but a team that cares about them, their personal growth, and their success. That’s what today is really about, resiliency, readiness and connecting.”

During the latter half of the day a significant portion of the 3,000 Airmen assigned to the 70th ISRW at Fort George G. Meade and their families joined together for sporting activities, food, music and discussion. These events highlighted bringing Airmen and their families together to build on a sense of family and community.

“I think events like this are important to build comradery,” said Senior Airman Liam Noonan, 94th Intelligence Squadron Linguist. “It’s a big benefit. For me, I feel like it’s had a pretty big impact. When I first got here and I didn’t know anyone I was scared to reach out. I just wanted to stay in my own bubble, but then ‘through events like today’ you just hang out with people and chat and build rapport; It makes it a lot easier ... it just makes work a lot smoother.”

Building readiness and focusing on resiliency were only part of the day’s events and activities. The Wing’s resiliency day was also scheduled to highlight and celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the United States.

“It is important to recognize this is our Nation’s 250th Anniversary,” Carter said. “There’s a lot of activities planned in the region and planned for the base, and we want our Airmen to be able to participate in that. But, we wanted to do something special as the Wing where we can come together so we set aside this day to do that as well.”

The 70th ISRW resiliency day highlighted a continuation of excellence for the Wing. It celebrated the 250th Anniversary of the birth of the United States and allowed Airmen to recenter and refresh to allow them to come back to the work centers ready to execute the Wing’s vital national security mission.