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380AEW Article

Deployed emergency management Airmen on the ready at Dubai Airshow 2011

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Chance Babin
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  An Airman from the 380th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron is part of a team of emergency management personnel ensuring plans are in place in the event of an emergency during the Dubai Airshow 2011.

Staff Sgt. Valerie Kalkwarf forward deployed from the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing to make the preparations for a "what if" scenario at the international event.

She and her team of emergency managers from the Air National Guard and U.S. Air Forces Central Command, are ready to meet, coordinate, plan and prepare for the worst possible event.

"As an emergency manager, our three priorities are protecting people, property and the environment--in that order," said Kalkwarf, an emergency management journeyman for the 380th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron. "Planning is key to preparedness."

In order to be ready, Kalkwarf and her teammates coordinated with local response personnel, developed plans and checklists then put those plans to the test by leading a tabletop exercise prior to the air show.

"We had a couple of scenarios," said Kalkwarf, a Minonk, Ill., native. "We simulated a downed aircraft and also had a scenario involving an incident at one of the hotels and that would cause an evacuation. Out of that tabletop exercise came the accountability portion [of our emergency management plan]. That led to the deployed forces commander deciding that we needed to initiate a recall exercise to validate our procedures."

She said the exercises are done to ensure that questions and details are ironed out ahead of time so that if an incident occurs everyone knows exactly what their role is, what to do and whom to call.

"Planning and exercising beforehand makes it a lot better when an incident does occur," she said. "It can be chaos without having that preplanning done."

Working an international air show on foreign soil meant a change to the team's role in an incident, she said. At a stateside base, the emergency managers there would have a primary role in all response and recovery matters.

At the Dubai Airshow, however, the Emiratis are responsible for response and recovery. Her job at this air show is to make sure she knows her role during an incident so she can notify the proper organizations.

"Our major roles here are notification and command and control," she said. "The response, especially for a downed aircraft, is going to be handled by United Arab Emirates personnel. It will be their responders, firemen and police. Networking is essential; we established those relationships with our UAE counterparts to gather needed information that would be up channeled following an incident. This is to ensure our personnel are taken care of."

For this Airman, who deployed from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, the chance to work the Dubai Airshow has been rewarding.

"It's phenomenal," she said. "It's a once in a lifetime experience. In my career field, there are not too many opportunities as big as this. To work an air show as significant as this is just huge for the experience and everything that it brings."

The U.S. military is participating in the 2011 Dubai Airshow to build partnerships in the region and foster a shared commitment to security, according to U.S. Department of Defense officials. The Dubai Airshow is internationally acclaimed as the third largest air show in the world and the premier aviation and air industry event in the gulf region.