Photo By Senior Airman Rachel Coates | U.S. Air Force Airman assigned to the 74th Fighter Generation Squadron complete an...... read more read more
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Avon Park Air Force Range, Fla. – It’s known that not all is fair in love and war, which is why even though chemical warfare should be a universal no-go, Airmen still have to train to defend against it.
To prepare for that unfortunate reality, Mosaic Tiger 24-1 participants exercised chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense while simultaneously conducting integrated combat turns, sortie generations and more.
“It’s about force survivability, mission assurance and air superiority,” said Master Sgt. Jason Bal, 23rd Civil Engineer Squadron emergency management wing inspection team member. “It’s important practicing now in an environment that doesn’t have hazards, where we’re able to see what were good at and what we need to work on, so when we are in a hazardous environment, we won’t make the same mistakes.”
Exercises are all about figuring out the good, the bad and the ugly, and then using those results to hone best practices. For example, it may take longer to complete a job while wearing the bulky and sight-limiting Mission Oriented Protective Posture gear, the layered overwear to protect Airmen against contaminants. But how much longer is acceptable when an A-10C Thunderbolt II is waiting, right there, for more fuel and munitions before rejoining the fight?
“Anytime that you put more protective equipment on, it’s going to slow down work rates because of the limited mobility and visibility,” said Bal. “But it’s important going into it knowing that it’s going to take a little bit longer to complete a task, but that Airmen will be able to generate aircraft in a safe manner.”
War is fast-paced and unpredictable, which is why this exercise reinforced how Moody Airmen would react in a real-world event where MOPP gear is required.
“Integrated combat turns are one of the things that can’t stop,” said Tech. Sgt. Keith Bryan, 74th Fighter Generation Squadron weapons expeditor. “We can’t just stop because we’re in MOPP gear. That’s why it’s extremely important we know how to operate with the gear, so we’re not completely halting the mission in a deployed environment.”
Stressing the limits of what’s possible is one of the ways to identify where the line is between slow and steady, and quick and dead. There’s an acceptable level of risk in there somewhere, because even though there are limits to how quickly Airmen can move in MOPP gear, the mission must go on.
| Date Taken: | 11.16.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 11.16.2023 18:14 |
| Story ID: | 457999 |
| Location: | AVON PARK AIR FORCE RANGE, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 54 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Moody Airmen use Mosaic Tiger 24-1 to dust off MOPP procedures, by SrA Rachel Coates, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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