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Year-long preparation leads to ORI success

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Andrew Davis
  • 375th Air Moblity Wing Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  For the men and women of the 375th Air Mobility Wing, the past year was filled with intense training and some tough calls leading up to the week-long Operational Readiness Inspection, which took place March 21-28. In the end it all paid off with an "Excellent" rating.

Members of the 375th AMW spent the past year forming teams within the wing as well as with their ORI partners--the 133rd Airlift Wing, based out of Minneapolis-St. Paul, the 94th Aerial Port Squadron, from Robins Air Force Base, Ga., and the 156th Airlift Wing from the Puerto Rico Air National Guard. The ORI took place at Volk Field Combat Readiness and Training Center, Wis. While the wing partnered with the units for the execution of the ORI, each unit was scored individually.

As soon as the wing was notified it would be inspected, "we hit the ground running," said Col. Gary Goldstone, 375th AMW commander. "The excellent rating the wing received demonstrated how hard we have worked. I couldn't be more proud of everyone's efforts."

Aside from the need to be technically proficient, there's a requirement to be mentally alert and have a certain attitude and sense of urgency when executing the wartime mission, explained Col. Terry Ward, 375th Operations Group commander. He served as the deployed OG commander and senior 375th AMW representative at the deployed location.

"[Our challenge was to] couple that sense of urgency with rote memorization needed for what to do when working in a chemical environment, for example. Our ability to survive and operate depended on the combination of those skills, memorization and practice, practice, practice. It paid huge dividends for us. The commander [Colonel Goldstone] said the ORI was validation that we could perform our wartime mission. And, according to Air Mobility Command, we're able to do that in an 'Excellent' manner," he said.

The wing conducted five "Warrior Days" dedicated to both classroom and field exercise events as well as three fly-away exercises with ORI partners to both Volk Field and Alpena, Mich.

"The redundancy was the key to success for me and my team," said Master Sgt. Ricky Bouse, 375th AMW Safety Office. "The multiple fly-aways and the deployment line processing really helped me to understand and get down the necessary processes that would make a successful ORI."

Bi-weekly teleconferences with the ORI partners, monthly reviews of previous inspection results, augmentation and observation of other IG events, along with performing numerous unit-level training events rounded out the training journey.

Colonel Goldstone said, "These training opportunities mirrored the areas we were evaluated on. Our initial response, our employment (getting folks to the fight), our mission support functions and our ability to survive and operate in a wartime environment were all tested during these many exercises, as well as the final inspection in March."