97th Air Mobility Wing

Public Affairs

Due to Iran and Syria simultaneously attacking United States forces in the Middle East, Altus Air Force Base has been tasked to respond to the crisis at hand. This is the imaginary scenario which was played out May 13 through 19 during a base-wide exercise here.

The exercise was actually composed of five total exercises all in one, said Maj. Russell H. Bartlett, chief of Wing Inspections for the 97th Air Mobility Wing.

The exercise included a recall, anti-terrorist, nuc-lear major accident response, deployment exercise and an ability to survive and operate exercise.

"The exercise will help prepare Altus for the upcoming March 2006 operational readiness inspection, and more importantly ensure Altus is prepared to react to any real-world situations which require this type of response," said Senior Master Sgt. Sam Lindner, deputy chief of Wing Inspections for the 97th AMW.

The exercise played out as follows:

At 8 a.m. May 13 Altus AFB received a simulated warning order, which put Altus on notice it would have to deploy personnel from the base because of the war situation.

In the same message, the base was instructed to perform a recall.

This recall exercise gave Altus four hours to account for 100 percent of its personnel.

"On May 16 we got the preparation order, which was the first time commanders were able to see the list of who was being tasked to deploy," said Major Bartlett.

"We ended up deploying a simulated 230 personnel and 157 tons of cargo over the course of the exercise," he said.

Also last Monday, Altus received another simulated message directing it to go into force protection condition BRAVO.

"This action was part of the anti-terrorist exercise," said Senior Master Sgt. Doug Channer, superintendent of Wing Inspections.

In response to the notice, all FPCON signs on base were changed to BRAVO and security was increased as well.

May 17 a simulated C-17 carrying nuclear weapons in response to the war diverted to Altus due to an in-flight emergency.

Upon landing the C-17 skid off the runway into the grass.

Due to the hard landing, several of the restraint devices failed causing the cargo to break loose inside the aircraft.

This nuclear MARE was a tabletop exercise, said Sergeant Channer.

Members of the Crisis Action Team discussed the proper procedures for responding to this type of accident rather than making personnel go out and demonstrate them.

Commanders were also briefed on some of the concepts involved when dealing with nuclear weapons.

"May 19 was the final and busiest day of the exercise as hundreds of personnel were processed for deployment and tested on their ability to survive and operate," said Major

Bartlett.

The deployment exercise began at 4 a.m. as cargo was prepared for shipping.

The first group of people scheduled to deploy arrived at the deployment line at 6 a.m.

"Each group had approximately 90 minutes to process in order to keep up with the deployment flight schedule," said Sergeant Lindner.

After going through a simulated deployment, Altus personnel participated in an ATSO exercise.

During this exercise personnel were tested on their M-16 skills, their ability to identify unexploded ordinance, self aid buddy care and suiting up in mission oriented protective posture gear.

The exercise ended around 4 p.m. May 19.

"There were many lessons learned," said Major Bartlett.

"We are still in the process of analyzing what was done right and documenting areas which need improvement."