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375th AMW prepares for Operational Readiness Exercise

  • Published
  • 375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  More than 200 Airmen from the 375th Air Mobility Wing will fly to Gulfport, Miss., this week to participate in the first Operational Readiness Exercise of 2013.

The ORE takes place Jan. 12-20 at the Combat Readiness Training Center where wing members will combine for the first time with Airmen from three other wings slated to participate in the June Operational Readiness Inspection.

The other wings participating are the 130th Airlift Wing (Guard), Charleston, S.C., the 153rd Airlift Wing (Guard), Cheyenne, Wyo., and a small contingent from the 89th Airlift Wing at Joint-Base Andrews, Md.

Lt. Col. Brian Severns, 375th Air Mobility Wing Exercise and Plans chief, said throughout the exercise, the "deployed forces" will put into practice all the training they have received during the past year to continue the mission while encountering scenarios such as: enemy attacks, Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Enhanced Conventional Weapons contamination, and destroyed facilities.

"The goal is to gain the experience we will need for the future," said Severns. "I expect a lot of learning to take place during this exercise and areas to be revised before the next exercise."

Base leaders have scheduled a "prep-rally" today as part of wing training day to help prepare deploying Airmen.

Col. David Almand, 375th AMW commander, said the purpose of the "prep" rally is to review expectations and fundamentals before heading out the door.

"We've been spending several months of training right here on station, so this 'fly-away' gives us the opportunity to practice in the deployed environment, working with our partners face-to-face. Even though we are four wings, we are One Team! We also want our Airmen to be 'mission ready' and they'll start to hear that mantra as we ramp up to the ORI. I know they're working hard, we just want to keep fine tuning all the inspection areas."

Another fly-away exercise with the other participating units will be conducted in the spring, prior to the ORI.