Luke conducts CBRNE exercise

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class David Owsianka
  • 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  Luke Air Force Base conducted a Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear High-Yield Explosives exercise May 16. The scenario involved a terrorist causing a simulated explosion and role players acting as if they were hurt by the blast.

In this exercise, the CBRNE dangers included radiological materials and explosives. The particular threat during this exercise was simulated radiation from a radiological dispersal device, or more commonly known as a dirty bomb.

"The primary goal of any exercise is to save lives," said Tech. Sgt. Scott Badson, 56th Fighter Wing exercise and evaluations NCO-in-charge. "We also attempt to minimize the loss or degradation of resources."

The exercise involved looking at the potential emergencies and disasters based on what could happen if the event was real and not just an exercise.

"It helps us develop and implement programs aimed toward reducing the impact of events like this on the installation," Batson said. "It also prescribes procedures required to deal with consequences of actual events and to recover from those actions."

The units that played important roles during the exercise were the firefighters, medical, bioenvironmental and explosive ordnance disposal Airmen.

According to Anthony Rabonza, 56th Mission Support Group deputy fire chief, exercises are a culmination of training, coordinating and organizing the processes in the Air Force Incident Management System to handle the chaos associated with a large multi-agency event.

"It was great seeing our emergency response agencies come together and work to resolve the myriad of issues associated with the terrorist event," Rabonza said.

The wing has exercises quarterly to test the bases ability to react to emergencies.

It also gives those who are nonresponders on Luke the opportunity to learn the skills needed to test how they would react to an emergency.

"It's important to have exercises because they prepare us for the real thing," he said. "We are able to find out our weaknesses and make course corrections in this environment, so we can get it right if it were to happen in real life."

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