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Shaw tests readiness

  • Published
  • By Kimberly Champagne
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Wing
Airmen of the 20th Fighter Wing tested their ability to deploy and redeploy aircraft, personnel and cargo March 22-27 as part of a Phase I Operational Readiness Exercise. 

"Phase I exercises demonstrate the ability to rapidly deploy cargo, personnel and aircraft to any war-time location," said Lt. Col. Todd Hamilton, 20th Fighter Wing Plans and Inspections chief. "Fundamentally, the wing is tested on how well, safely and smartly it moves hundreds of people and tons of cargo in accordance with Air Force directives." 

The 20th FW is preparing for an Operational Readiness Inspection in August.

"This ORE is another step in our road map of preparation, but every Airmen has to internalize the idea they could be asked to deploy anywhere in the world today or tomorrow," said Col. James Post, 20th FW commander. 

"While the ORI is important, it is by no means the sole reason behind exercises. We will continue to balance the demands of the Air Combat Command Inspector General with the ongoing call to arms brought about by the Global War on Terrorism," he said. 

"The wing met many exercise objectives, including reducing number of discrepancies, employing a new deployment processing center and ensuring we are ready to do this today, tomorrow and when called upon," Colonel Hamilton said. 

"The wing still has work to do, but the major elements of the exercise all demonstrated improvement over the January Phase I ORE," he said. 

"Moreover, it is always successful when we are able to run such a robust scenario with the level of realism and attention to detail that were shown by all of the participants this week," Colonel Hamilton said. "I think we will see continued focus on our wing recall procedures and our overall level of awareness regarding operations and communications security." 

"Airmen must capture the learning points from the exercise, positive or negative, do it now, so the next time we have an exercise they can pull out that paper, dust it off and make sure they do not make the same mistakes twice," Colonel Post said. 

The Chandler Deployment Processing Center was used for the first time during the ORE. 

"Operating out of a new DPC, the difference was phenomenal," said 2nd Lt. Charlene Peters, 20th FW installation deployment officer." The former facility was not even a deployment processing center. It was a work-around until the Chandler Center was built and ready to use." 

The new facility provides many benefits. 

"Not only does it provide an adequate environment for the collocation of all our deployment processes, which immensely improves awareness and timely communication, it also enables the IDO to coordinate all the moving parts to ensure execution is performed in a timely manner so assets arrive on time at Base X for the regeneration of aircraft," Lieutenant Peters said. 

"We have state-of-the-art equipment built especially for command and control and the movement of personnel in our new facility. The former facility was a warehouse," she said. 

The new facility will be an asset as the wing prepares for more exercises. 

A Phase II ORE is scheduled for May 8-9. If the exercise objectives are not met due to weather, May 10 has been designated as a weather back-up day. The next Phase I exercise is scheduled in June. 

A Phase II is an employment portion of the exercise. A Phase I tests our ability to go to war and a Phase II tests our ability to employ our assets at war, Colonel Hamilton said. 

"Many people questioned the requirement for a Phase II with the impending ORI evaluating the wing's ability to perform a Phase I, but the wing can not ignore the need to stay ready to conduct combat operations if called upon," he said.