News

Exercise, exercise, exercise...

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Ashlin Federick
  • 436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  More than 100 Airmen are participating in an Operation Readiness Exercise on Dover Air Force Base, Del., Mar. 2 through Mar. 8, 2013.

The ORE evaluates the wing's ability to respond to accidents, disasters, increased states of readiness and deployments in support of worldwide contingency operations. The wing is stressed in a short amount of time to see how well they react to generating aircraft and preparing personnel and cargo processing for deployment.

Throughout the exercise, the wing must respond to different scenarios from launching aircraft and aircrew to reacting to chemical and conventional attacks.

"It's a good training opportunity for the younger Airmen to come up and learn our field capabilities that we don't do at home station," said Staff Sgt. Benjamin Lambing, 436th Force Support Squadron food services technician.

Exercise Evaluation Teams assess the performance of the wing throughout the scenarios. EET membership includes members from each squadron and tenant unit on Dover AFB.

Mr. Richard Bowman, 436th Airlift Wing exercise evaluation and planning chief, said EETs are highly skilled functional experts in their jobs who evaluate and inspect their units' capabilities to perform their wartime tasks.

They also show up hours prior to an exercise and stay long after everyone has gone home to clean up and prepare for the next day's scenarios.

"As chief of EET I could not do my job without the help of the men and women of Dover AFB's EET," said Bowman. "They are true professionals. They play a vital role in helping prepare Dover AFB for their upcoming Compliance Unit Inspection."

Chief Master Sgt. Joseph Donitzen, 512th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron maintenance superintendant, said his purpose in the ORE is to evaluate to see where his organization's weak spots are and where they need to train to be ready for the next ORE.

"We have to be prepared to protect our assets and resources," said Donitzen.

Senior Master Sgt. Ralph Ritter, 512th Maintenance Squadron aircraft electrician, said the ORE takes troops out of their normal duty days and lives and puts them in a situation of stress and lack of sleep. Ritter said the troops have had positive attitudes and are trying to learn as much as they can for the upcoming ORI.

"I get to keep and eye on my troops," said Ritter. "I get to see how they perform and deal with stress under pressure. It gives me an opportunity to learn their personalities a little better in different situations."