Ramstein Airmen support 15-nation medical training exercise

NIS, Serbia (AFNS) -- Thirty-two members of the 435th Air Ground Operations Wing at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, arrived here Aug. 25 in support of the Medical Training Exercise in Central and Eastern Europe 2009.

More than 600 people representing 15 nations will participate in this year's annual exercise with a focus on major disaster response and mass casualty situations.

The team, which consists of personnel from the 435th Contingency Response Group and 1st Combat Communications Squadron, arrived a few days in advance of the exercise participants to set up the command center and a fully operational tent city with showers, air conditioning and communications.

While this type of deployment is not new to the team, this is a first since becoming part of the 435th AGOW in July.

"This is the AGOWs first deployment, so it's really neat being part of such a unique wing with such a special mission," said Capt. Mike Rellick, the 435th Expeditionary Air Base Squadron commander. "Every one of the units is very expeditionary in nature, so we are excited to be here representing the (435th) AGOW."

As the multinational exercise participants began arriving, the team's focus changed from initial setup to support.

"We are the experts on how to build bases," said Col. Tim Brown, the 435th Expeditionary Air Ground Operations Group commander for the exercise. "Our expertise really lies in opening air bases, but we also operate air bases on a smaller scale. In this particular case we're not actually operating the airfield, but we're using our expertise to provide support here for not just the headquarters staff, but also the support for real-live participants."

CRG representatives came to Serbia in November 2008 to attend an initial planning conference for the exercise.

"The team has been down here four times," Captain Rellick said. "We were here for planning conferences and to survey the airfield. We did an airfield suitability assessment basically finding out what buildings can be used. We also did tests of the runway, taxi ways and parking ramps to determine what type of aircraft can land, taxi and park. It's a load-bearing test that enables us to make recommendations to higher headquarters as far as what aircraft they can bring here to ensure there are no safety hazards."

The team is very excited to get a chance to show off their specialized skills.

"I love this job," said Staff Sgt. Justin Gebhardt, a 435th CRG team leader in training. "In my normal job, I'm an aircrew ground equipment mechanic on the flightline, so doing something like this is completely different. It's such a thrill to be able to come out and do something like this to support other nations. It's very gratifying because you can see the end result of everything."

While the 435th AGOW team used their expertise and equipment to set everything up in about 48 hours, they had support from the host nation forces.  

"Working with the Serbians has been fantastic," Colonel Brown said. "The U.S. and Serbia (forces) haven't had a lot of opportunities to work together, so this is certainly a major opportunity. They are very disciplined in their planning approach and this is a major opportunity for them hosting this exercise to showcase they're capabilities. They've done very well in that so far. We always take the opportunity to try to learn from others as well. We teach others and we learn from others and that's really what MEDCEUR 2009 is all about."