Hill AFB conducts operational readiness exercise

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  • By 388th Fighter Wing and 75th Air Base Wing
  • Public Affairs
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  Airmen of the 388th Fighter Wing, 419th Fighter Wing, 75th Air Base Wing and Ogden Air Logistics Center participated in an Operational Readiness Exercise March 3-7.

The week-long exercise tested the wings' ability to deploy quickly and operate in a chemical combat environment.

Chemical warfare is a current threat said Maj. Jon Wilkinson, Chief of 388 FW Plans and Programs. "The threat is out there, and like the Boy Scout motto, (we must) be prepared," said Major Wilkinson. "We always have to be prepared for the worst case scenario, and the worst case scenario is warfare in a chemical environment."

During OREs, the base's leadership strives to come up with various scenarios to make the training as realistic as possible. Airmen are evaluated on their ability to survive and operate while carrying out their wartime mission.

"The reason we do all this training is to make sure our Airmen have a better understanding of what to expect at their deployed location," said Col. Linda Medler, 75 ABW commander. "It's never an easy decision to send Airmen into harms way, but when the call to deploy comes down, my priority is to make sure our people are fully prepared. And, although depending on where we send our Airmen, there may not be a current chemical threat, our people must be trained and able to operate under those conditions. It's always a challenge."

Everyday, familiar tasks to Airmen become more difficult when performed in a chemical environment. The ORE is the test said Major Wilkinson. The ORE provides evaluation on how Hill AFB is responding to the different combat situations.

"We evaluate how we are doing, then we can steer this big ship in the right direction. We make sure we are ready in all the areas we have to be ready in," said Major Wilkinson.

Readiness is important to the military said Major Wilkinson because Airmen don't know when they will be called on to do their job.

"The bottom line is that we always have to be ready to execute the mission, to do our job, and defend our nation," he said.

Part of defending the nation and being ready to execute is being ready to quickly deploy a squadron and associated personnel and equipment. Major Wilkinson said one goal they focused on during this ORE is the ability to deploy squadrons and make sure the scenario was much more challenging for this exercise.

Part of that deployment process during the ORE, Hill AFB practiced Phase I. It involved deploying a squadron from the 388 and 419 Fighter Wings and numerous support functions from the 75 Air Base Wing and Air Logistics Center somewhere in the world. Major Wilkinson said Phase I is practicing packing up all of the stuff, getting all of our jets, cargo and personnel ready and then leaving town, going to some deployed location. Once they have arrived at that deployed location, then Phase II began. The Phase II involved flying combat operations from the deployed base as well as base attacks and demonstrating our ability to operate and survive under different scenarios.