Instructors arm Airmen warriors with knowledge

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Orville F. Desjarlais Jr.
  • Air Force Print News
NAVAL AIR ENGINEERING STATION LAKEHURST, N.J. (AFPN) --  The contingency skills training instructors at one of the Air Force’s most realistic wartime training programs play many roles -- observer, controller, good guy, bad guy, politician -- however, their most important role is that of mentor.

The Air Mobility Warfare Center instructors will do what it takes to ensure Eagle Flag participants get the best training possible before being sent to a hostile environment. One, Chaplain (Maj.) John Ditter, even went so far as to volunteer to deploy to Iraq so he can become a better trainer.

“My goal is to prepare people to deploy to a hostile environment and supply ministry in the (war zone),” the chaplain said. “We help them understand the environment (the participants) will be going through so that they’ll be able to do their primary functions.”

For the ministry, Chaplain Ditter said it is important for him to teach survival techniques and safety, such as how to move around in a hostile environment.

As with most career fields being represented here, the medics’ training requirements are different. Although they, too, need to know how to move around safely in a war zone, medics must be ready to provide medical care the second they arrive at a new location.

The Eagle Flag scenario requires participants to “deploy” to a bare-base environment where they are required to set up everything -- from medical tents, to dining facilities, to sleeping quarters.

“A medical team is expected to help put up its own work center and establish a sick call procedure and a medical aide station,” Tech. Sgt. Shane Lacaillade said.

“They must be able to provide emergency response as soon as possible,” said the emergency medical technician skills instructor.

At the end of the exercise, signs of a successful medical team “deployment” are a healthy base populace and a medical foundation that can be built upon if needed, Sergeant Lacaillade said.

As a visitor to the exercise, Master Sgt. Vincent Iapichino is witnessing the exercise firsthand from the sidelines.

“The training is doing (the participants) well,” said Sergeant Iapichino, an operations superintendent from the Air Force Institute for Operational Health at Brooks City Base, Texas. “If they do something for the first time during this exercise, then they know what to expect once it really happens in the real world.”

Contingency skills training instructors do what it takes to make the training realistic and memorable.

During role playing, the instructors act and dress the part. For instance, the mayor of a fictitious village may dress in colorful clothing and display customs unknown to exercise participants, while the member of a fictitious foreign military sports colorful ribbons and wears strange rank on their epaulettes.

As observers, the instructors stand back and watch the action unfold before them, ready to advise when asked. And after the action is through, they provide feedback, as well as allow participants to learn from one another.

“Before I deployed here, my viewpoint of what the mission was was slightly distorted,” said Senior Airman Lawrence Reed, a supply journeyman from Pope Air Force Base, N.C. “Through working with my comrades, I’ve learned that what we do has a global impact. I’ve learned that teamwork, either one on one or country to country, helps make missions a success.”

That learning process extends to contingency skills training instructors, too.

“I’m thrilled to be here and passionate about what we do,” Chaplain Ditter said. “I volunteered for a deployment to Iraq so I can get a first-hand look at what is going on over there and bring that experience back to enhance my teaching.”

By giving Eagle Flag participants a glimpse of what it will be like during war -- and peace -- contingency skills training instructors hope to provide another layer of protection to those who go into harm’s way.