The 179th Airlift Wing, Mansfield, Ohio, spent the past three days conducting a Readiness Exercise, August 16-18, 2019. The Wing Inspection Team (WIT) conducted training scenarios that tested the ability of Airmen to complete Core Mission Essential Tasks under the stress of a contested, degraded and operationally limited environment.
Transcript
The Wing Readiness Exercise we did this past weekend is a opportunity for us to test and get data on the Wing’s overall readiness to go and deploy to a foreign location and perform air mobility which is air lift, delivering cargo or supplies to our sister services or coalition forces against a near peer adversary. So, at a high level of the potential conflict.
We have two defensive fortified positions. We have an external response team and our job is to check the installation and send out the response team in case of any threat. Importance is that we maintain our skills so that if we ever get into that situation having practiced that situation multiple times is gonna let us know immediately what we have to do and start having to think about it beforehand. That way, it’s almost like a natural reaction. Like you learn how to ride a bike you’ll continue to remember that. Just keep our skills fresh so that way if we come into contact we know exactly what we’re doing and we can take care of it.
The Air National Guard is obviously here everyday to support the state of Ohio and its citizens but in our larger role we have to perform missions for the Air Force and the nation as a whole. So, what the Wing Inspector General does is it devises inspections and exercises to test that capability to make sure that we are indeed ready to do those things to ensure our success and make sure we’re always improving. So this is really critically important for us just doubling down and ensuring that we are ready for those missions if called. – We are preparing to do our job, our mission while in a challenged chemical environment amongst other things. So, our near peers have been known to use chemical weapons and if we’re gonna take them on, if you will, we are gonna have to be prepared to be able to do our jobs in a challenged environment. So, it’s hard enough to do your job with launch and recovering, generate air power as it is including all the sport activities that come with it but to be able to do it while in chem gear in potentially while in the desert and while in all that heat. It’s very challenging. So, the first time you do it can’t be while you’re deployed it has to be at home station where you feel a little bit more relaxed yet we’re still challenged. Two of our priorities, one is airmen we take care of our airmen and I believe that preparing them to do the job in a challenging environment is taking care of our airmen. And two, is that we’re challenged that we have to be ready. You can’t be ready to deploy and go do your mission which is to support and defend the constitution of the United States and all free people around the world without being prepared to do this do your mission while in a challenged environment, chemical warfare and the like. I’ve had opportunities in my career to swear a lot of people in and when the parents are there I always tell that airman, ’cause they’re an airman after they swear in, I always tell that airman’s parents that I will take care of we will take care of your son or your daughter and one of the reasons why I say that is part of what we’re doing now. To make sure they’re ready so if we do have to fly, fight and win in a challenged environment that they will come home alive.