Photo By Airman 1st Class Hailey Ziegler | U.S. Air Force Capt. Lesly Toussaint, a contracts administrator with Business...... read more read more
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HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. -- The contingency acquisition exercise Emerald Flag 2020 occurred for contracting and finance Airmen from March 9-15.
Hurlburt hosted twelve bases and a total of 77 members, generating simulations to help participants advance training and preparation for deployment situations.
The first step in the exercise involved establishing living conditions. Setting up a bare base or forward operating base, starts with getting food, water and shelter.
“We work with the host nation and vendors through the host nation to get those resources necessary to survive,” said U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Mark Tonkinson, noncommissioned officer in charge of the commodities flight with the 1st Special Operations Contracting Squadron. “To set up any base, there’s a lot of legal considerations, so we make sure the commanders understand what the legal requirements are when we’re making those purchases.”
Once commanders understand the legal requirements, contracting and finance Airmen initiate the remaining processes for building up the base.
“After we establish the bare base, it starts going into a sustainment type phase and that’s where you start building up, getting more people, more personnel and different things on base,” said Tonkinson. “We’ll start going from tents to hardened structures and getting construction requirements going. Then we shift gears from the food, water and shelter to more of the items you wouldn’t typically get right out the gate, like items for morale, recreation and welfare.”
Contracting is in charge of everything going into establishing the base, and finance is their counterpart to ensure sufficient funds are available.
“Participants in the exercise are constantly getting tasks to stay busy, overwhelmed or flustered,” said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Alex Mayfield, the NCOIC of financial analysis with the 1st Special Operations Comptroller Squadron. “This is so they can make those mistakes needed in a controlled environment, to train and better prepare themselves for when they get deployed.”
These situations heighten operational skills.
“On the finance side of the exercise, they’re simulating paying a vendor with actual fake cash or pretending there’s customers on the base, like other military members who need to do foreign currency exchanges, cash a check or maybe they owe a debt and things like that,” said Mayfield. “On top of that, they’re going through tons of regulations to see if those purchases are legal. We’re testing them on what kind of safety procedures and security procedures they have to go through and how they react to the different simulations.”
Tonkinson and Mayfield served as two of the main directors of Emerald Flag and started planning with their team in November 2019. As many details of the exercise as possible were planned out and considered to ensure maximum operational readiness.
“I think the exercise is great, it definitely helps as far as operational readiness,” said U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Tyler Merson, a contracting specialist with the 1st SOCONS. “Being part of Air Force Special Operations Command is one of the most important things, because technically we are the first boots on the ground. It was great having people from different units and finance here to work with side by side. I feel grateful getting as much training as possible, so when the time comes for me to deploy, I’ll be prepared.”
| Date Taken: | 07.09.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 07.10.2020 09:46 |
| Story ID: | 373651 |
| Location: | HURLBURT FIELD, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 191 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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