News

Reservist participates in military exercise through his civilian job

  • Published
  • By Sandra Pishner
  • 446th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
MCCHORD FIELD, Wash. --  Leave it to a Reservist to get involved in a National Guard exercise.

About 1,150 Air and Army National Guardsmen from Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and nine other states participated in exercise Alaska Shield 2014 March 27-April 2. And then there was Tech. Sgt. Casey Muilenburg, 446th Aeromedical Staging Squadron nutritional behavior craftsman.

Muilenburg participated in this large disaster exercise not as a Reservist though. He is also the Western Regional Manager for Sprint's emergency response team. Here again is an example of the dual-hatted role many Reservists play in local communities.

The Guard-driven exercise involved national, state and local agencies and was designed to test the response and coordination of different agencies in a disaster scenario modeled after the 1962 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that ravaged Alaska.

"I have a team I usually deploy with, me and two others. After 9-11, Sprint identified the need to be able to add capacity to our network in emergencies. We also recognized when a major event happens, whether it's a natural disaster or a huge event where there's a concentration of people, that networks get congested and our first responders can't respond as effectively. So that's when we designed this vehicle, our SatCOLT, to be able to put up a cell tower and be able to provide an IP solution for our customers," said Muilenburg.

As a Reservist, Muilenburg has deployed to Iraq twice. He found that deploying as a civilian is a different experience.

"As a civilian, it's so much nicer. They (military members) were all in their huts, open bays, having to eat at the dining facility, pulling 24 hour shifts, and guard duty. As civilians, we stayed in a nice hotel, and I had my own car. It's a lot different, but you still have all the same responsibilities, the same professionalism to uphold," said Muilenburg.

Back in 2012, while running a Sprint conference dealing with interoperability of communications and how to overcome some of the difficulties present in large response situations, Muilenburg met the J-6 from the Washington National Guard.

"While we were there he brought up this exercise and asked if we thought we'd be able to participate," Muilenburg said. "I said as long as you can get us on a C-17 to get us up there. They were able to work the requirements to get us on a C-17. They had two C-130s arranged to take their equipment and people up to Alaska, but our truck is too tall to fit on the C-130."

Although Muilenburg serves in a wing that just happens to fly C-17s, it was actually a National Guard squadron out of New York that came and picked his team and truck up here at McChord Field, Wash., and took them to Alaska.

Muilenburg credits his Reserve experience with successfully deploying as a civilian.

"You learn to think outside the box and being in two different military branches (he also served in the Marines), I know the structure just enough to be dangerous," he said while laughing. "So I was able to make sure my team was prepared to support the DOD, and was able to ask the correct questions and understanding how a military commander looks at issues and what they're concerned about."