445th Reservists weather Buckeye Storm exercise

  • Published
  • By Capt. Elizabeth Caraway
  • 445th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  More than 130 Airmen from the 445th Airlift Wing participated in Buckeye Storm here May 2-3, 2015. The two-day exercise offered refresher training in post attack reconnaissance and unexploded ordinance sweeps, litter carry and medical care review, and chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive defense.

Buckeye Storm is the wing's third exercise this year. Buckeye Thunder, held in January, sampled the wing's deployment folders. March's Buckeye Lightning challenged wing flight line operations, ensuring members were ready for contingencies. Buckeye Storm extended the readiness training to additional units.

"Our hope is to have exercises like this one twice a year to maintain our wing's readiness," said Maj. Eric Florschuetz, 89th Airlift Squadron instructor pilot and commander's inspection program exercise planner. "Instead of reviewing these skills every three to four years, we want our Airmen to keep muscle memory for skills like donning chem gear."

Another important aspect of the training, said Florschuetz, is that it improves overall wing and unit readiness, rather than the individual readiness that deployment "just in time" training provides. Airmen learn to complete these hands-on tasks in a group, which is a more accurate representation of what they would encounter deployed.

The first day of Buckeye Storm was a training day. Twelve instructors went over procedures for conducting Post Attack Reconnaissance (PAR) and Unexploded Ordinance (UXO) sweeps, donning and doffing chem gear, and caring for wounded.

The second day was the practical portion of the exercise, offering activities that blended team building with skills practice. The participants were divided into four groups and went through a variety of team building and skill-promoting activities overseen by instructors and wing inspection team members. For example, Airmen had a grid on the floor that simulated a minefield and had to work through the grid marking mines and getting the rest of their team through it.

Participants were enthusiastic about Buckeye Storm, particularly the practical applications on the second day.

"It's been an informative and fun experience," said Staff Sgt. Mara Thomas, 445th Civil Engineer Squadron operations management. "We've been able to practice with equipment we don't often use, like land mobile radios, and handle it with the added challenge of Mission Oriented Protective Posture (MOPP) 4."

"The hands-on experience for what we would do in that environment has been valuable," agreed Airman 1st Class Jason Ware, 445th CES, who worked the unit control center with Thomas during the exercise.

"There is a mix of higher ranks and younger troops right out of tech school here," Thomas added, "and the mixture of experience levels has been beneficial to all."

The exercise wrapped up with a contest pitting top male and female group members against one another in a chem gear donning competition that participants dubbed the "MOPP Off." Contestants were timed and penalized for mistakes in donning procedures. Senior Master Sgt. Al Baker, CES, and Staff Sgt. Clare Warden, Force Support Squadron, took top honors with a combined time of eight minutes and four seconds -more than four minutes faster than the runners-up.

"We are building our commander's inspection program--which is still pretty new--and our exercise program from ground zero," said Florschuetz. "We've had a few bumps along the way, but we take those as lessons learned and use them to make the program better. Our wing goal is to be better prepared to complete future missions."