MCA to MRA-Redefining Readiness

KADENA AIR BASE, OKINAWA, JAPAN

07.23.2024

Story by Senior Airman Cedrique Oldaker 

18th Wing

KADENA AIR BASE, Japan – When you hear the phrase “Multi-capable Airmen” what do you think? You might think “do more with less,” and I can’t blame you for that. Needing to deal with the normal tasks of your primary duty, then being asked to perform more tasks outside of it can sound unnecessarily complex. I thought the same when the MCA concept was first being rolled out with the Air Force’s new Agile Combat Employment mindset, and was even “volun-told” to take a class teaching it.

Recently I was once again tasked with going to a class for the new Mission Ready Airmen concept, a rebranding of the MCA concept, and the differences between the first class and this one made me rethink how I viewed the whole system.

When I was initially told I would be taking the class, I was worried it would just be another PowerPoint hell with only a small part being practical lessons. I was surprised to learn that there would only be two times we needed to sit through PowerPoints, the first day of class and the first segment of our medical portion of class.

Throughout the course we went over a variety of skills taught by various members of the 18th Wing before ending the week with a capstone event to go over everything we had learned. However three aspects of the training stuck out to me as the most useful/most likely to come up in an Agile Combat Employment scenario; area defense, rapid airfield damage repair and medical evacuation and tactical combat casualty care tier 2.

Base defense was taught by the 18th Security Forces Squadron, and they first went over the different kinds of scenarios you could be approached with while on duty. They listed out normal things like someone coming by to ask a question and eventually listed some of the crazier things they had seen, such as people openly approaching with weapons as if it was the most normal thing to happen. After a brief explanation of the training we were put into an exercise with one instructor acting as the approaching individual and the other acting as our operations center.

They drilled into us how important it was that as soon as someone starts to approach us, someone needs to submit a report to the OC. The different groups of students were put through a range of situations, mine being someone approaching wanting to take pictures on base and taking pictures at the entry point. This then escalated to the individual telling us he was going to take the photos back to a militia so they could attack us, so we had to restrain them.

Moving on to RADR, taught by the 18th Civil Engineer Squadron, we were driven out to a simulated runway they had prepared for us. We were tasked with repairing these holes in the runway with cement, and were given shovels, water, buckets of cement and what looked to be a big version of a mixing bowl mixer. The engineers gave us a how-to on mixing the cement and filling the holes, but they mostly let us handle everything, offering advice when we asked and when we needed to adjust our mixture of cement. This at first felt like a random task, but the engineers explained that, in an emergency situation, more people knowing this process made it easier for them to work on other crucial things, like repairing buildings. It ensured that a quality repair will be done and the engineers won’t have to baby-sit the process. This process also ensures that we can get aircraft back in the air sooner, because we have more people available to provide a quick, quality repair effort.

This had been the most labor-intensive portion of the class so far, but was surprisingly fun to learn. It felt like I had learned something tangible, and being able to see the progress I made from the first to the last repair was extremely satisfying.

For the medical portion, we had one day entirely focused on TCCC and half a day focused on aeromedical evacuation taught by the 18th Medical Group and 18th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. This was the only other day that we had to sit through any PowerPoint slides before the actual lesson.

We started off with evacuation, where we learned how to load people onto a litter, that piece of fabric on two poles you see in old cartoons. The most important part of this training was communication, both between the team carrying the litter and between the medics directing the teams loading patients into the aircraft.

After this we moved onto the TCCC tier 2 class, starting with a lot of classroom instruction. Once the slides were over and we moved on to the hands-on portion, where the instructor set up medical dummies and had us participate in a simulated combat care scenario. When it was finally my team's turn, we started off with enemy fire on us. After suppressing the attack and locating the patient, our instructor told us what condition they were in and injuries they had.

This form of training allowed us to actually apply the skills we had learned in this more in depth TCCC class. The instructor gave us changes to our scenarios that forced us to use these new skills, like applying a needle decompression and vented chest seal to a gunshot wound on the back we uncovered after a second look. This new knowledge felt practical, useful to me even if I wasn’t in the military. Now I am better equipped to respond if something severe happens around me.

Through the class, I was able to gain real skills and an understanding of what I have heard leadership harp on for the past couple years. It gave context to the mindset of adaptability that the Air Force has spoken about. Now, with this new understanding of the change going on, I feel a little more confident in mine and my peers' ability to defend and save each other should the need arise. Our ability to do that also enables us to get back in the fight and keep the mission going sooner, making sure we can’t get hit while we’re down.

• Date Taken: 07.23.2024
• Date Posted: 07.22.2024 22:33
• Story ID: 476786
• Location: KADENA AIR BASE, OKINAWA, JP