Deploying at home: Are you ready?

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Lorraine Amaro
  • 552nd Air Control Wing Public Affairs
This month, Airmen from the 552nd Air Control Wing will be deploying in their own backyard during training exercises that prepare them for what's to come in a real-world deployment.
   Glenwood, an exercise area outside of Tinker, and "South Ramp," located on the Navy side of base, will be full of masked Airmen, makeshift threats and plenty of moulage, all for an Operational Readiness Exercise Oct 15-27.
   During the "deployment," Airmen will be sent to the training areas to brush up on different areas of war-time operations such as Self Aid and Buddy Care and Chemical Warfare training.
   "We use the exercises to raise situational awareness and to train our personnel to respond to situations appropriately," said Master Sgt. John Brown, Security Forces liaison for the 552nd Air Control Wing. "That training and exercise mentality is what makes us the best Air Force in the world."
   During his many years in the Air Force, Sergeant Brown has been through a lot of exercises, and in that time he has been able to see some of the common mistakes many Airmen make during mock deployments.
   "There are two things I often run across; the first is security awareness. Everybody, to include our civilian counterparts, must take the initiative and responsibility to know what is right and just do it," said Sergeant Brown. "The second is that exercises are meant to benefit the mission and the people, so treat all exercises as real-world. In my career, I've seen too many people either avoid exercise scenarios like the plague or treat them like some kind of joke. Take them seriously and get involved. You will learn something that will carry over to the real world."
   Before an exercise even starts, a lot of time and effort is put into making the exercise happen, by the wing Inspector General's office.
   "It takes three to four months to plan a two week exercise," said Kelly Van Etten, the Readiness specialist for the IG. "We have three exercises planned for fiscal year 2008, all with the 72nd Air Base Wing."
   Not only does the IG plan and execute the exercise, they also evaluate it.
   "As established by Air Combat Command, there is a five-tier grading level going from Outstanding, Excellent, Satisfactory, Marginal and Unsatisfactory," said Mrs. Van Etten. "Locally, if an exercise is failed there will be findings levied out against the groups and each will have to come back and explain how they're fixing the findings because that generally means there is a major problem. We then wait until the next exercise to tackle those areas again."
   To ensure the best ratings on the upcoming exercise, Mrs. Van Etten suggests Airmen use common sense when out in the field.
   "Use common sense and don't rely on your Airman's Manual 110 percent," said Mrs. Van Etten. "Airmen are smart and fully capable of helping someone with a broken arm without looking at instructions."