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Joint exercise challenges all forces at Ali Base

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Nathan Gallahan
  • 407th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
ALI BASE, Iraq --  Wails and screams filled the night sky, dampened only by the wind. The giant voice speaker system overpowered everything blaring, "exercise exercise exercise."

U.S. Air Force Airmen, Army Soldiers and Romanian infantry came together in an exercise April 11 to sharpen their skills in case of an attack causing mass casualties.

"The exercise was designed to make sure we're all working in concert and working together, as a coalition and as a team," said Master Sgt. Marc Leach, 407th Air Expeditionary Group exercise and evaluation team leader.

Exercise designers brought in 20 Romanian military members and U.S. Army Soldiers with simulated wounds ranging from light shrapnel to full amputation of limbs to participate in the exercise. The passenger terminal hosted the wounded, while simulated unexploded ordnance was placed across the base to test the response of post attack reconnaissance teams.

"We asked the Romanians to be a part of the wounded because we wanted a language barrier; we're trying to challenge the Air Force and the Army in everyway we can," said the Sergeant, who is deployed from Moody AFB, Ga. "The Romanian military also asked us to place UXOs in their compound to test out their PAR teams, and they did a great job."

In a typical Air Force mass casualty response exercise, security forces, fire and medical Airmen respond to any given accident.

"We're used to working with each other," Sergeant Leach said. "But here, it's the Army paramedics working with Air Force responders. It adds a whole different element and this exercise helps us synchronize the response."

The synchronization between the services could be seen as the simulated wounded lay screaming in the building. Initially Army Soldiers were the ones coordinating triage efforts prior to the arrival fire department Airmen.

Once the Airmen arrived, they melded into the triage area and the wounded were taken to the Army's medical facility.

"We are working really well together, everything is coordinated and the communication is great," said Army Capt. Melissa Hodges, 7th Sustainment Brigade anti-terrorism and force protection officer in charge.

Sergeant Leach said the reason the various Ali personnel are working well together is because the services are "learning to speak the same language," which he loosely explained as the tactics, procedures and acronyms of each of the services.

"This is great because we can watch each other work and learn from each other," said Army Private 1st Class Kyle Bowden, 7th Sustainment Brigade noncommissioned officer in charge of anti-terrorism/ force protection. "It affords us the opportunity to see that although we're in a different uniform, we're fighting the same war."