SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Airmen assigned to the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing participated in a major accident response exercise, simulating an on-base aircraft mishap Jan. 5, 2016, at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia.
A major accident response exercise or MARE is designed to test a wing’s ability to respond to a variety of different events that could be disastrous to the installation and negatively impact the mission.
This particular exercise incorporated representatives from multiple wing agencies, simulating a ground emergency of an aircraft’s nose gear which collapsed upon landing, causing the jet to veer off the runway, colliding with a government vehicle.
“This exercise displayed the wing’s capability to respond to an event and encompasses many, if not most, installation agencies checking their abilities to manage their personnel, which include the different disaster response force agencies such as emergency operations center, crisis action team and base defense operations center,” said Master Sgt. Benjamin, a 380th AEW inspector general exercise planner.
Every wing in the Air Force, both stateside and abroad, is required to hold a MARE each year in accordance with the Air Force instruction governing the AF’s inspection system. The 380th AEW IG Office began planning for the MARE several months prior to the exercise to meet the annual requirement.
Wing leadership ensured the missions outlined in the air tasking order were still being met for all real world operations, even though much of the wing was participating in exercise.
“This wing has a very important role in the overall air picture for the area of responsibility, said Barnes. “While we may be able to take a strategic pause for an exercise, we know that very quickly we’re going to have to start launching and recovering jets again because you can’t just take the 380th AEW out of the fight and have the same mission capability.
(Due to security and safety concerns some last names were removed.)