OREs save lives, preserve freedom

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Russell Wicke
  • 455th Expeditionary Operations Group Public Affairs
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) --  I experienced engagement with the enemy for the first time here July 12 -- it was a rocket attack on the base. I had only recently arrived and unlike most everyone else, I had not yet fallen into the rhythm of everyday life in a deployed location.

I was socializing in the common area about 9 p.m. when suddenly a loud boom rocked us, and I saw a flash about 100 yards away toward the flightline area.

Although they give you one briefing after another about how we are operating in a combat zone and we need to always be on alert, it didn’t really sink in until I heard the explosion of the incoming rocket targeting our lives and what America stands for.

Nothing can describe what I felt when the attack siren started wailing and everyone started running for bunkers and weapons. I could tell who had been well-trained and who was taken by surprise and didn’t know what to do. Most were going off of muscle memory from the training the Air Force had given them.

This is what I had trained for during all those operational readiness exercises, and I was grateful for all the hours spent “playing like we fight.”

If I could give just one piece of advice to those going through the rigorous labor of an ORE back home, it would be this: Pay attention to what they’re teaching you in the exercises and practice it. Run "what-if" scenarios over in your mind repeatedly. That training the Air Force is offering you now is the biggest paycheck you’ll ever receive, because it can save your life -- a life that is precious to your spouse, your children, your family and everyone else who loves you.

But even more importantly, that training is preserving the life of an entire free nation. What you do keeps our aircraft in the air and enables Americans to go up in tall buildings and fly in free air space without fear.

I think our 455th Air Expeditionary Wing command chief here, Chief Master Sgt. Les McPeak, has worded it perfectly for us. During a newcomers’ briefing he showed us six photographs. One was of his wife, and the others were images of each of his five children.

“Why am I sharing my family with you?” he asked. “Because there are people out there who want to kill them. And that is why I’m in the Air Force and serving here.”

I realize now, after experiencing the reality of someone trying to kill us, that our training enables us to resist that evil and keep America free. The OREs are not just for you, but also for your family and your free nation under God.