More than 350 Airmen are testing their humanitarian mission support skills during the Air Mobility Warfare Center’s Eagle Flag exercise.

This is the first time the flag-level exercise has specifically provided a humanitarian relief mission scenario.

“Basically, we are trying to create the most realistic humanitarian relief mission environment that we can,” said Capt. Robert Prausa, the 421st Combat Training Squadron assistant commander for the Eagle Flag flight. “We are going for realism here and this is a real test of (the participants’) ability to respond to a situation like this in the real world.”

And like in the real world, the Eagle Flag Airmen were caught by surprise. Arriving at the exercise, Airmen processed into the deployed fictional country of Chimera for a mission oriented around the global war on terrorism. Shortly after their arrival, a sudden tsunami devastated the Airmen’s host nation leaving many people injured, homeless and starving.

“We really didn’t know it was going to happen,” said Tech. Sgt. Suzanne Roe, the superintendent of fitness and sports for the 305th Services Squadron at McGuire Air Force Base, N.J. “It just hit out of the blue and we had to respond.”

Sergeant Roe was previously stationed in Singapore and helped support tsunami relief operations in Indonesia and Thailand.

“(This Eagle Flag humanitarian mission) is not so different from what we did there,” she said. “I haven’t seen any devastation here, but I didn’t see any real devastation there except what I saw on T.V.

“There, I was just trying to support the tsunami relief operations as best I could, and that is what I’m trying to do here. Natural disasters like the tsunami and Katrina can happen at any time around the world,” she said. “We all have to be ready to do our part to help.”

While the sudden humanitarian relief mission may have put many Airmen under pressure to maintain two important missions, they are taking it all in stride.

“Our jobs are the same as always,” said Airman 1st Class Dominic Wimsatt, an aerial porter with the 571st Global Mobility Squadron at Travis Air Force Base, Calif. “We are professionals who have missions to accomplish. That’s why we are here; that won’t change.

Airman Wimsatt also helped support the real tsunami relief operations.

“When you saw the kind of devastation the people had to deal with, you wanted to do what you could,” he said. “I can really describe what it is like when you finally get to get out and help people like that -- to see that your job is making such a difference.”

During Eagle Flag, Airman Wimsatt and his fellow aerial porters unload cargo supplies for both the war on terrorism and humanitarian relief missions. Once unloaded the relief supplies are shipped to “Camp Kelly,” the exercise staging area for relief support operations for the local Chimerans.

Before the exercise ends March 10, exercise officials estimate that the Airmen of Eagle Flag will process and help distribute more than 100,000 pounds of humanitarian aid.

Despite the logistical nightmares involved with running two missions together, the Airmen see the exercise as a success.

“We have to constantly prioritize and utilize how we should be scheduling our assets to each mission,” said Tech. Sgt. Tom Strickler, the exercise’s external relations officer. “I know we have a much higher operations tempo -- a dual operations tempo -- but so far, it is working great.”

Sergeant Strickler has also seen his share of humanitarian relief missions.

“(The Eagle Flag mission has) a big operations tempo,” he said. “That’s a very good thing. The bigger the ops tempo, the more realistic and the more it will mirror the ops tempo at a deployed humanitarian location.”

While the Airmen participating in this mission are setting the bar for all future Eagle Flag participants, exercise officials say the most important part of the exercise’s first humanitarian scenario is the amount of experience these Airmen will gain.

“The best part of this exercise is that we do not simulate or stop events like many bases do,” Captain Prausa said. “We have lots of people behind the scenes who adjust the exercise, sometimes the entire course of the exercise, to match what is happening now.

“Every action, every decision made out here -- good or bad -- is carried out completely to its logical conclusion,” he said. “That is the real hallmark of this exercise.”