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Warriors sharpen skills through operational readiness exercise

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Nathan Allen
  • 15th Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii- --  Airmen from the 15th Wing, as well as participants from 154th Wing and 647th Air Base Group, participated in an Operational Readiness Exercise here Feb. 28 to March 7.

The week-long exercise tested the wing's ability to deploy quickly and operate in a chemical combat environment, as well as respond to other scenarios created by exercise evaluation teams.

"A large part of winning any conflict is to be able to arrive on the scene with well-trained and motivated professional Airmen," said John Tauber, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam exercise and training office chief. "As much as possible within exercise boundaries, we strive to train as we would fight."

During the ORE, the 15th WG's leadership created various scenarios to make training as realistic as possible. The wing was evaluated on its ability to operate and carry out the mission both here and in a deployed environment.

Tauber said the ORE was split into two phases. The first phase focused on deployment, or the overall objective of tasking personnel and equipment to deploy within a specific time frame. During the first phase, the installation's ability to accept and process non-combatants evacuated from a potential danger area with the base serving as an intermediate processing facility. The other element of phase one evaluated the 15th WG's ability to receive personnel and equipment while backfilling forces after Air Force personnel have deployed.

Phase two of the ORE focused on employment, or the evaluation of deployed forces and aircraft to a potentially hazardous downrange location. During this phase, the ability of Airmen to fly and fight in a high-stress chemical warfare environment was tested.

"It's been a tremendous opportunity to focus on our primary functions and our ability to fly, fight and win," said Col. Sam Barrett, 15th Wing commander. "We're trying to make sure Airmen make use of their warrior skill sets and hone their ability to support wartime requirements."

Chief Master Sgt. Craig Recker, 15th Wing command chief, said it's vitally important to train Airmen to survive and operate in a deployed environment.

"It's critical that we be able to generate combat power in any environment," he said. "If our Airmen aren't prepared to perform this duty in austere conditions then we've failed in our ability to generate combat power. It's critical that we be able to do this in any environment or element."

For Airmen participating in the exercise, familiar tasks became more challenging as exercise evaluation teams tested their ability to perform their jobs under a variety of unfamiliar conditions.

"Our local exercises were designed to take members out of their 'comfort zone' and stress them just short of their fail point," he said. "By throwing curves at people doing their day-to-day jobs we increase the stress level and force them to multitask in order to arrive at a successful conclusion of the scenario. It also lets commanders know where the strengths and weaknesses are within a particular area of evaluation."

Though the 15th WG hosted the ORE, the 154th WG, 647th ABG, and Sailors from the joint base here provided key support functions as well as undergoing a few scenarios of their own.

"The ORE is an extremely valuable opportunity to develop our skills while furthering our joint base
relationship as well as our partnership with the 154th," Col. Barrett said.

Chief Recker said he felt everyone performed well, and the ORE provided learning opportunities for all involved.

"Everybody brought their piece of the puzzle, and it seemed to play out pretty well," he said. "The joint base community has never generated an ORE before so this was a great learning opportunity for Navy senior leaders to see what our mobility machine looks like when it's in full stand-up mode. Everybody did their part and they did it pretty well."