News

Reserve engineers build from dirt up during readiness exercise

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Daniel Liddicoet
  • 446th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
FORT MCCOY, Wis. --  Since June 8, the 446th Civil Engineer Squadron has reinforced the Air Force Reserve Command mission at the Patriot Warrior exercise here. After their first wave arrived, May 30th, the Citizen Airmen out of McChord Airfield's, 446th Airlift Wing coordinated an effort to construct a fully-operational base, from scratch, so the players could lodge and train.

Patriot Warrior is the AFRC portion of a comprehensive joint-expeditionary exercise, involving almost 6,000 Airmen, Sailors, Soldiers, and multinational forces. Formerly known as Global Medic, the exercise focused primarily on aeromedical evacuation training, and readiness. But it has evolved into multi-faceted platform.

According to Senior Master Sgt. David Wright, 446th CES Infrastructures superintendent, participation in Patriot Warrior fulfills Silver Flag - pre-deployment training - requirements, due its real-world, austere conditions simulation.

"For a lot of these guys that haven't deployed, this is an eye-opening experience for them," Wright said. "It's a realistic situation for us down range, and that's been the most useful part of this; having to deal with delays and things not always going exactly to plan."

The heightened level of realism and adaptability that accompanies minimal control of every variable is what makes this training unique.

"Silver Flag is more of a checklist of events, explains Master Sgt. Kit Lui, 433rd. Civil Engineer Squadron, observer, controller, and Trainer for the exercise. "There are no real consequences for them if anything goes wrong. But out here, if they don't manage to put up their tents, they won't have anywhere to sleep for the night."

The 446th CES was selected to create suitable conditions for 500 people in a remote location, only using their available supplies.

"'We were chosen for this as a result of our high sorts level," Wright said, "And this is one of the best groups I've ever worked with, they've really rose to the challenge here."

However, the seamless capability to set up a fully-functional base on nothing more than a patch of dirt didn't come easily.

"We were pre-planning for this for about a year after we found out we were selected," Wright said. "Before we even brought our first team out here we had to come and do a site survey to help decide a layout for the base."

With boots on the ground, and greeted by nothing more than the rugged, untouched terrain of the Midwest, the exercise was broken into three phases of CE responsibilities.

"We started with a lead team that went out to prepare and clear out the site for building and start putting up tents," Wright, said. "After that, we entered the build-up phase and had a new team come out to help construct the majority of the base and set up shower, laundry, potable water, and dining facilities. The next phase is the sustainment and tear-down group tasked with maintaining worthwhile conditions during the key pieces of the medical exercise taking place."

According to Master Sgt. Rebecca Forgey, 446th CES Operations Management superintendent, 14 career fields came together in support of Patriot Warrior, and many of them took responsibilities alien to their regular duties.

"The camaraderie and bonds that were built through working towards a common goal has been the best part of this exercise," she said.

Learning to work with other branches of service, new equipment and tasks became a necessity for the 446th CES.

"Everything we touch out here is training," said Staff Sgt. Dustin Buel 446th CES Water & Fuel Systems maintainer. "We try to pick up and learn each other's jobs. If one of us goes down, the next guy should be able to pick up where he left off, and that's what we're striving for out."

The Citizen Airmen participants will come back to Joint Base Lewis-McChord as an air-tight combat-ready force.

"We're throwing all these units and branches together to make things work," Capt. David Shaw, 433rd CES OCT explained. "These are exactly the kind of conditions they'll see in places like Afghanistan. They're really going to learn to succeed within both time and resource constraints."