Civil engineers conduct field training

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class C.J. Hatch
  • 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. - --  The 56th Civil Engineer Squadron held its annual field training exercise Oct. 22 through 26.

"We conducted the FTX not only to stay current on training requirements, but to also expose our Airmen to contingency experiences," said Lt. Scott Thomas, 56th CES Readiness Flight commander. The squadron participated in different training all week long.

First they went to the Ben Avery Shooting Range north of Phoenix. They had a course on weapons handling, a safety briefing and performed a live-fire shoot. After lunch they took up air soft weapons and participated in group maneuvering in real world training.

"This is my first FTX, but so far it's been good," said Airmen 1st Class James Ott, 56th CES firefighter. "I liked the combat training with the air soft the best."

After a day of weapons training they had a day of setting up camp Thunderbolt. Wednesday morning started with gun
fire. Throughout the day there were numerous scenarios ranging from mortar attacks to nuclear assault.

"It was really good training," said Tech Sgt. Jeffrey Barry, 56th CES heating, ventilation and air conditioning technician. "It was not the normal training. We shot a lot and had more hands-on than usual. Changing it up keeps you on your toes."

Thursday the squadron went down to Gild Bend for convoy training and finished the week by doing a teardown, weapons cleaning and the final briefing.

"The range time, movement course and convoy training gave our Dragonslayers an opportunity to employ those skill sets that will be tested while deployed," Lieutenant Thomas said.