SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Joint servicemembers, coalition partners, contractors and transient personnel trained with 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Airmen in a Base Defense Exercise here April 8. Many also participated in the Major Accident Response Exercise later that afternoon.
"This was our first attempt at doing a BDE and MARE in the same day. It had an interesting set of challenges on its own in terms of how you build a scenario and how you make sure everybody is ready for a whole day's affair," said Lt. Col. Burnett LaChance, plans and programs chief.
The entire wing is affected by the BDE with everybody learning the quickest way to their bunker, donning the gas mask, and testing their capabilities, said Colonel LaChance, who is deployed from the 618th Tanker Airlift Control Center at Scott AFB, Ill. There was an event for everyone to demonstrate their defensive readiness.
One primary objective of the BDE is to comply with the bunker plan. It is beneficial for base personnel to understand where their bunker is located, he said
"All personnel on base, including the contractors and transients, have to know where their bunkers are, how to get there, and what the appropriate procedures are when they arrive so we can clear the base and return our full attention to the mission and bring the fight downrange," said Maj. Geoffrey Church, plans and programs deputy chief.
For the BDE, a scenario can simulate a missile hitting any part of the base. In that regard, it can challenge everyone. Where it becomes difficult is to not affect flightline operations, the colonel said.
"We can't close off taxiways. We can't take aircraft out because we have to fly the air tasking order missions," said Colonel LaChance, who calls Austin, Texas home.
It is a continuous process to more efficiently meet the commander's intent and to provide avenues for as many people as possible to participate in exercises, said Major Church, who is deployed from Air Combat Command headquarters at Langley Air Force Base, Va.
"Since I have been here we keep on stressing the system. We come up with more robust ideas. We ran through some challenges that affect everybody from senior leadership on down to challenge the thinking process and try to make it beneficial so it is a real learning environment as opposed to just going through the ropes," said Colonel LaChance.
It becomes a challenge to create ideas for the MARE that affects more of the populace. The MARE is designed to look hard at first responders and lines of communication, said Colonel LaChance. The MARE was another part where the British Royal Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force jumped right in and helped by bringing their expertise.
Navy and Army units here also participated in their own ways, he added. Some aspects of the BDE and MARE took place weeks before. Leading up to the exercise, the base simulated distributing 8,000 sets of chemical gear including distributing the gear to sister services.
"You have to remember we're not just an Air Force wing, we're a joint and coalition wing with lots of partners around who aren't familiar with doing things the Air Force way," said Colonel LaChance.
Weekly Exercise Evaluation Team meetings developed the scope of the exercise, scenario development, and a timeline to ensure the exercises would meet not just the wing's objective but also each individual group's and squadron's objective as well, said Major Church who hails from Waterville, Maine.
"The support that we received from our joint and coalition partners was exceptional. The Australians and the British were eager to provide their input and to make sure they were involved in the development of their own objectives as well as supporting the installation objectives," said Major Church.
EET members are from almost every squadron, joint, coalition and tenant unit and are subject matter experts, said Major Church. The BDE and MARE were successfully evaluated by a collection of more than 100 EET members including Army, Navy, RAF and RAAF members.
This is the first rotation that the wing has worked hard to account for all the transients, said Major Church.
"The 379th Expeditionary Force Support Squadron and the PERSCO team have done an exceptional job of building a system that will allow us to account for as many of the transients as we can possibly find. Since it was first used, we have now been able to increase the accountability rate for transients on base by 400 percent," said Major Church.
The wing will continue to improve upon the month-old system. The next hurdle is tracking down the contractors who are spread out among the squadrons they work with, said Major Church. The host nation also observed the exercise for the first time.
"We had host nation observing what we were doing and they have asked to be participants in the planning leading up to the next exercises as well," said Colonel LaChance.
"I think it is exceptionally important to involve them especially if we are going to continue to live, work, eat and sleep here."
In future exercises, the host nation is coordinating to be involved from the beginning planning process through final execution.