An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

380AEW Article

Exercise reinforces partnership between 380th AEW, host nation

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. J.G. Buzanowski
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  Officials from the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing met with their host nation air force counterparts Jan. 24 to discuss the lessons learned during a recent major accident response exercise, or MARE.

During the meeting, representatives from medical, security forces, fire department and operations units from both air forces discussed what went well during the exercise as well as which processes need more attention.

"The exercise afforded both nations the opportunity to test the capabilities of our people and share in the experience of responding together," said the host nation air force chief of operations. "When looking at what happened, I say we reached our objectives."

Evaluation teams assessed how their people would respond to a KC-10 Extender tanker aircraft crashed on the runway. First responders from both countries had to demonstrate how they'd put out the fire and rescue the 24 people aboard the aircraft in a timely manner.

"We based the exercise on a real scenario from when a DC-10 crashed in Iowa," explained Master Sgt Bill Hoeft, the 380th AEW Plans and Programs superintendent. "The first responders in that event were able save a lot of people specifically because they had just recently had a disaster exercise. We're partnering with our host nation for exercises in case we do ever have a crash because we would absolutely respond together."

Each representative offered their review as well as their solutions to issues that arose during the Jan. 18 exercise.

"On the medical side, we wanted to observe specific things: triage, patient evacuation and air evacuation," explained the chief of flight medicine from the host nation's air force. "Our two teams communicated well with each other."

Holding training events together proved vital to the success of the exercise, the doctor said. He and his staff partnered with 380th AEW medics for a training event Jan. 12 in preparation for the MARE. Both countries' medics ironed out a lot of the processes used in transporting patients, such as prioritizing care and keeping accountability of Airmen who were taken to host nation medical facilities.

The medical teams did note, however, that they need to ensure everyone is familiar with the proper communication protocols when entering and exiting the flightline.

The host nation air force chief of operations, who oversees exercise activities for their service, evaluated staff members working in the air traffic control tower. According to him, the biggest lesson learned is making sure everyone there has their appropriate checklist for an emergency.

"You never know who is going to be on shift somewhere, so if everyone has formal checklists, then we make sure it's always done the same way," he said. "Even if someone is new, if they have the checklist, they should be able to do their job. So that is something we will look into."

The most important aspect of any exercise is to find areas of improvement before a real-world disaster, Hoeft said.

"It's better to find any issues during an exercise so we have a chance to fix them when everything is simulated versus an actual disaster when lives are on the line," said Hoeft, a Rochester, Minn., native deployed from Travis Air Force Base, Calif. "And that's what exercises like this are all about - figuring out how we can work more effectively together as partners with our host nation so we can save lives."