DEPEX prepares Team Dover for inspection

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jacob Barreiro
  • 436th Force Support Squadron
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  A deployment exercise (DEPEX) is a large and complicated task requiring Airmen from a variety of career fields to work together to achieve a common goal: successfully simulating a deployment and redeployment.

These exercises may be difficult and frustrating to the people in them, featuring long days of confusing activity, jumping in and out of Mission Oriented Protective Posture (MOPP) gear, and processing through deployment lines. However, despite the challenges they present, these exercises offer a chance for Airmen to not only assess their mission readiness but to prepare them for real world situations.

The Airmen of Dover Air Force Base, Del., will be facing these challenges directly in a DEPEX scheduled for July 6 - 10.

The goal of the DEPEX is to go through the process of deploying people and cargo to see if they are prepared for the Operational Readiness Inspection in December, said David Johnson, deputy chief of exercises, evaluations and planning on base. The majority of the units on base will be participating, so the DEPEX should be a good indicator of where they stand.

The DEPEX will involve more than 600 personnel, said Richard Bowman, chief of exercises, evaluations and planning.

"This is a joint effort between the 512th Airlift Wing and the 436th Airlift Wing," said Mr. Bowman. "Our goal is to exercise the deployment machine. This involves the entire base."

With more than 600 personnel participating in the DEPEX there is a chance some base agencies may be affected, said Mr. Bowman. However, maintaining home station capabilities is a priority, and no base agencies should be closed for the DEPEX.

In addition to the possible effects on base agencies, personnel not participating in the DEPEX should be alert for exercise participants wearing MOPP gear and performing Personal Area Reconnaissance sweeps around the base. There may be personnel on the base in gas masks, but that is part of the exercise and should not be a cause for concern for non-participants.

The exercise is important to the base because it serves as a precursor to the ORI, said Mr. Bowman. The standards and expectations for the DEPEX will as high as they will be for the real thing.

"The first part of our mission is the deployment of our personnel," said Mr. Bowman. "The second part of it is maintaining home station capabilities. We will have a portion of the wing exercising and getting the grade for the whole wing, but we will still maintain the mission back here at Dover AFB and we won't falter."