BUCKLEY SPACE FORCE BASE, Colo. – U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Vladyslava Iakovenko and Tech. Sgt. Hannah Berry, financial managers, 140th Comptroller Flight, were selected to represent the Colorado Air National Guard during Exercise Diamond Saber at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, July 12-26, 2025.
The joint training included representatives from the U.S. Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps where members spent two weeks in situations that simulated hostile environments to enhance their practical skills.
“Diamond Saber is the Super Bowl of financial management readiness,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Gerard Harris, commander, 140th Comptroller Flight. “An elite training ground where our sharpest minds thrive under pressure, proving that financial precision is just as essential to mission success as tactical execution.”
Diamond Saber helped members receive real-world hands-on experience in a simulated environment, preparing them for potential deployed scenarios such as cashiering, currency exchanges, and vendor payments. While performing their day-to-day duties under simulated hostile, violent, and overwhelming scenarios – like simulating being held at gunpoint – their technical proficiency was enhanced.
“The training took what we would do in a deployed environment and amplified it to create a hostile and stressful environment,” Iakovenko said. “It was teaching us how to react to situations where we have a bag full of money, and people are coming at us.”
Simulating the high stress, hostile environment evoked quick problem-solving responses. According to Berry, this was the most beneficial part of the training to prepare her and her wingmen for real-world hostile experiences.
“The Contingency Response Group would dress up as locals and go out to make our vendor payments. We would go to a random van out in the middle of the field, and we would pay that vendor,” Berry said. “But all the while we have six to eight CRG folks dressed as locals, and they would harass us, they would try to take our money, they would hold us at gunpoint, and they would put us in handcuffs.”
Getting hands-on experience outside of a presentation or classroom gives members the opportunity to test their skills and professionalism under stress and evaluate how they react to hostile conditions and attacks.
“If civil engineering needs supplies to build a flight line or to build tents and we need help from the locals, whatever supplies we need, that would be our role,” Berry said. “At home we can train on our finance roles and what we're supposed to be doing, but at home no one trains us how to respond when you’re put in a scenario where it's overwhelming and stressful and you're trying to protect yourself and what you have. Now we have so many more ideas to integrate.”
For Iakovenko, being put in an overwhelming and stressful environment in which she's forced to protect herself and her supplies, provided her realistic training for what she could experience in a real-world deployment.
“The tasks and conditions of the training were very in depth for what we may experience in a deployed environment,” Iakovenko said. “We had to endure the kind of conditions you might experience in a deployed environment, such as tight quarters and MOPP drills in the summer heat. We received training from not only the financial career field but also explosive ordinance disposal and participating in a Contingency Response Group, expanding our training and knowledge base beyond finance. Every day of the exercise, we built on knowledge from the previous day and continued to amplify the intensity and demand of the scenarios.”
To further simulate the realistic nature of an austere location, Iakovenko described the fast-paced training.
“It was very much like drinking from a fire hose with all this information,” she said. “They make sure that you're prepared for anything and everything so that when you are deployed, you're ready for pretty much anything. Then you can take it home and you can teach your home finance units.”
“I believe they came back with more confidence in their abilities and professional knowledge,” said U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Gomez, superintendent, 140th Comptroller Flight. “I truly can’t wait to see how they will prepare our flight for the future fight.”