Reservists attend first safeguard training exercise

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Ruby Zarzyczny
  • 939th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
VOLK FIELD AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Wis. (AFPN) --  While many Airmen were glued to the tube watching the NFL playoffs, the 939th Air Refueling Wing went to training camp to learn how to better survive and operate in a war, contingency or emergency.

The 43 Reservists went to the Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center at Camp Douglas, Wis., to take part in the Air Force’s first readiness safeguard command and control functional training exercise program.

The Airmen learned to recognize issues that often arise in contingency operations and emergency situations that affect the mission. Through prioritizing, they learned to make decisions on the battlefield and flow communication to the lowest level to overcome problems.

Today’s Airmen are doing things they traditionally have not done -- like taking part in ground combat operations. So effective command and control is critically during contingency operations because it will save lives, resources and help solve problems.

“First time is often the best time,” said Lt. Col. Jonathan McDaniel, the program director. “This type of training developed from and is a product of necessity. I want units to perform well in the full-scale exercise as well as in real-world combat situations.

“What I found is that if we back up from the full-scale exercise and take key parts and pieces and train them, then everybody isn’t going to suffer from the lack of understanding of those key functions,” he said.

The colonel said command and control in the military is even more important because of the level of impact military decisions have on the people, government and politics of a nation.

“So we have to be very careful about what we’re doing,” Colonel McDaniel said.

The five-day exercise focuses on training a wing’s survival and recovery center. Representatives from support, aircraft maintenance, civil engineering and operations sections receive guidance from the wing operations center. The center is the “brain,” where decisions and other command and control directives take place.

The first two days of training were lecture seminars focusing on the ability to survive and operate. Some of the topics included threats and tactics, defensive capabilities, threat working groups, tools for command and control information management and security considerations.

On the second day, Reservists went into overtime when they conducted a table top exercise with a map of the area and zones with miniature vehicles, airplanes and buildings to help them visualize the “big picture.”

Throughout the week, while the Reservists learned how to apply key functions of command and control, an opposing cadre team of Airmen helped five Guardsmen on the staff present and evaluate exercise scenarios.

Over the next two days of training, the cadre presented a self-contained functional exercise by building a virtual wing and contingency environment -- much like a simulator where pilots train.

“The goal of this exercise is to put command and control Airmen in a realistic environment,” Colonel McDaniel said. “Have them at a level of proficiency so when they are presented with a problem during a full-scale exercise -- or an inspection or actual contingency environment -- they are able to work through problems deliberately making decisions by prioritizing and coordinating all the different assets that it takes to resolve any given situation.”

The training proved to be a positive experience and valuable for many reasons.

“It’s always good when people are doing exercises to change the nature of the exercise and to throw in new wrinkles,” said Maj. David Jeske, commander of the 939th Logistics Readiness Squadron.

“It becomes easier and easier for our Reservists to start to see where were going with these exercises and game it more,” the major said. “By sending them off to a different location and a different venue now they see new wrinkles they have never seen before. It gives them new options and additional resources and skill they can draw on to resolve problems.”

The major might have seen similar scenarios before, but the training cadre at Volk Field presented new options to resolve those scenarios.

“We’ve taught them as much as we could here, and this training gives them new techniques and new ways to solve problems,” Major Jeske said. “One of the things our Reservists have seen deploying overseas is that there are no longer cookie cutter answers to the issues they will face.

“So rather than teaching them this is how to solve this issue no matter where they went, which is no longer the case, now we’ve given them more options for how they could resolve issues,” the major said.