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Airmen recognized for contributions to ORI

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Samantha S. Crane
  • 375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  As a whole, the 375th Air Mobility Wing received an Excellent rating for the recent Operational Readiness Inspection, but without Senior Airman Jonathan Lach and Airman 1st Class Christopher Braun, both 375th Civil Engineer Squadron emergency management team journeymen, the exercise may not have gone as smoothly.

Air Mobility Command Inspector General team lead, Col. Mark Schmitz, personally recognized the two Airmen during the ORI outbrief here April 2.

Because of their performance as the primary members of the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear cell, the wing's response time to a particular simulated chemical attack was two hours shorter than expected, said Colonel Schmitz. This allowed exercise personnel to remove gas masks hours sooner than planned and drastically increased exercise personnel's efficiency.

The event marked the first time the two were calling the shots as the primary members of CBRN team, and Airman Braun wasn't quite sure of himself as they began.

"I felt we were working slowly, but it turned out that we were right on track," Airman Braun said. "This is the first time, besides technical school, that I was operating as the primary CBRN cell; that in itself was nerve-racking."

But in the end, their training came through.

"Both of us were pretty nervous that we were going to totally mess the situation up," said Airman Lach. "We've done all the training, but you don't truly comprehend just how quickly events move until you're in the hot seat.

"In the end, though, both of us fell back on our training and information we've learned. Trust in our training is what gave us confidence to make the call."

According to IG members, the scenario was one of the toughest and can take up to five hours to solve, but Airmen Lach and Braun took less than half that time.

Col. Craig Johnson, 375th CES commander, said, "It's amazing the strategic impact that these two professionals had. In the toughest IG chemical scenario given to a wing in the past four years, these two Airmen delivered the right solution and got the wing operational in less than two hours."

Twenty-two individuals and 14 teams were recognized by the IG for exceptional performance during the ORI, but Airmen Lach and Braun were the only individuals who the IG called out by name to explain their contribution to the overall mission.