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

Deployed Airmen tame MARE

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. J.G. Buzanowski
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  In the event a plane crashed here, what would Airmen deployed to the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing do? How would they save lives? How would they contain the damage? How would they keep the mission going?

These and other questions were asked and answered in a major accident response exercise, or MARE, Jan. 18.

Master Sgt. Bill Hoeft, the wing plans and programs superintendent, created a scenario to test units from across the base, including firefighters, security forces, medical teams and several others.

"People might wonder why we're exercising at a deployed location, but really, this is where it's most important for us to make sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to emergency response," said Hoeft, deployed from Travis Air Force Base, Calif. "People here are from all across the Air Force and don't have the advantage of having worked together for a long time. If we ever do have an accident or other catastrophic event, we now have the shared experience of how to respond."

For the exercise scenario, Hoeft and his team of evaluators assessed how 380th AEW Airmen would respond in case a KC-10 Extender aircraft crashed on the runway. Not only did the participants have to demonstrate how they would save as many lives as they could, they also had to find a way to keep the wing's mission flying.

"If we lost use of part of the flightline, we would still have to meet the requirements to provide (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance), air refueling, and command and control for troops on the ground," Hoeft explained. "We have folks in Afghanistan who are counting on us and we can't just ignore that. So part of the scenario was for them to find a way to make it happen. Sure enough, during the exercise, we still had planes taking off and landing."

Airmen and even a few Soldiers assigned to the 380th Expeditionary Medical Group found many challenges, such as fighting a mock fire aboard a KC-10 and extracting the six aircrew members and 19 passengers. Medics then had to treat what patients they could on scene and transport others to emergency facilities.

The exercise was the largest one of its kind where military members from the host nation were also involved. The chief of flight medicine from the host nation's air force unit assessed the performance of his first responders alongside Air Force exercise evaluation team members.

"We exercise together because we share the same flightline," the doctor said. "It's good for us to team up because it could be a U.S. Air Force aircraft or it could be one of ours. What's most important is that we're able to work with each other. And that means being prepared for a mass casualty event."

The exercise also gave many Airmen a chance to learn new skills or dust off old ones, Hoeft said.

"There are a lot of younger Airmen who have never been through a MARE, so this was good for them to build confidence in whatever their part of a response would be," said Hoeft, a Rochester, Minn., native. "In addition, a lot of Airmen might not always get the chance at home to go through an exercise. So this was a chance for us to all learn together."

Learning is the most important part of an exercise, said Lt. Col. Greg Thurgood, the wing plans and programs chief.

"Exercises are a great way to identify what works and what doesn't so we can then take those lessons and apply them before we have a real-world disaster," said Thurgood, a Salt Lake City native. "We have to be able to respond immediately and effectively to save lives and prevent any disaster from getting worse."

Over the next several days, Hoeft and other evaluators will sort through reports from everyone involved to find out what went well during the exercise and which processes need some more attention. All in all, the Airmen and host nation partners did "really well, with only a few things that need to be fine tuned," Hoeft said.

"We know people are deployed here for our primary missions, so we don't ignore those obligations," Hoeft said. "The whole exercise only lasted a few hours, so it wasn't too much time out of everyone's day -- just enough to make sure we were all still ready to respond. Now we know we are. And knowing is half the battle."