Base members test skills during exercise

  • Published
  • By Deborah Leuthold
  • 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  The 56th Fighter Wing participated in a week-long readiness exercise, which began at 5 a.m. Monday with a base-wide recall. Once per quarter, the 56th Fighter Wing

Inspector General office plans, conducts and evaluates a week-long readiness exercise for Luke to test the ability of base members to survive and operate in both a local training environment and deployed

combat operation. "The purpose of the exercise is to assess the 56th FW's readiness posture," said Lt. Col. Steve Hormel, base inspector general. "We evaluate how well units are able to deploy their personnel and look at their ability to survive and operate in peacetime and combat environments." To ensure base-wide readiness, the exercise

must test Luke's response on many levels. "Recall procedures, building evacuations, gate entry, flightline and secure facility intrusions are just a few aspects we examine," Colonel Hormel said. For the major accident and response exercise portion, Colonel Hormel said Luke

was tested on its ability to respond to a natural disaster caused by severe weather. The deployment portion of the exercise tasked approximately 30 Luke Airmen for a mock deployment to the Middle East. Those same Airmen were later evaluated on their warfighting skills and their ability to survive

and operate at the base training area. The exercise is conducted in only one week, but many more hours are spent preparing for it. The exercise and evaluation team starts weeks before of the exercise and works with approximately 20 exercise evaluation team members to script each exercise event. "The script is important to ensure the Base members test skills during exercise Master Sgt. Michael Burns

Airman 1st Class Hunter Howe, a 56th Civil Engineer Squadron firefighter, examines an accident victim during the 56th Fighter Wing's major accident response exercise here Tuesday. exercise is conducted safely and is as realistic as possible," Colonel Hormel said. "We also coordinate with local police and fire departments so they can participate just as they would in real world." Depending on the nature of the MARE, a certain amount of setup is required. "For this event, setup took approximately two hours," Colonel Hormel said. "Wrecked golf carts and cars were placed at the accident scene. Also, simulated victims had to be moulaged by a member of the 56th Medical Group to present realistic-looking injuries before they were positioned at the scene." Although groups were tested in differing scenarios, all of Luke was involved in the exercise. "Each of the four groups is tested in one fashion or another on their ability to protect resources, evacuate buildings and more," he said. "Every exercise is successful from a learning standpoint," he added. "People make mistakes, but the important part is to capture the mistakes, learn from them and make the necessary improvements." From a grading standpoint, however, grades given are similar to an Operational Readiness Inspection and will be presented to wing leadership next week.