Photo By Master Sgt. Patrick O'Reilly | Senior Airman Stanley Fairchild III, right, 89th Airlift Squadron loadmaster, secures...... read more read more
The 445th Airlift Wing Inspector General team spearheaded a full-scale wing readiness exercise dubbed Vigilant Elk 24 Oct. 4 to 10. The wing staff and members from each group and squadron participated.
The Vigilant Elk participants included 184 active training participants, 45 Wing Inspection Team members and six IG inspectors.
According to the IG team and Air Force requirements, the purpose of the exercise was to demonstrate the wing’s ability to generate, employ and sustain in accordance with appropriate operation and concept plans, time-phased force deployment data, unit type codes, mission directives, mission-essential and supporting collective tasks, and command guidance.
Master Sgt. Shawn McKellop, 445th AW IG inspection coordinator, served as the exercise planner and manager for the first time in his career. He explained that the generation portion of training started with getting everyone processed and out into the training areas.
Next was the employment phase which included the training events, employment and wartime skills. The sustainment portion, which focused on Citizen Airmen performing their jobs, wrapped up the exercise.
At the different training locations, Airmen were not only tested on job knowledge but also Air Force procedures for scenarios that may take place in a deployed location. Some of the scenarios the Airmen ran through included ground attacks, destroyed assets, cyber-attacks, chemical attacks and malfunctioning equipment.
The training took place at “Stark Air Base” on the west ramp of the flightline and “Snow Expeditionary Air Base” located at the Warfighter Training Center. Most of the initial processing kicked off at building 101, labeled the 445th AW campus.
WIT members are handpicked and appointed by their respective commanders. They are subject-matter experts in their fields, McKellop explained.
“Their role was to help us plan and execute because [the IG team] doesn’t know anything about turning wrenches on an airplane or stuff like that,” McKellop said.
One of those WIT members was Senior Master Sgt. Jamie Pope, the 445th Force Support Squadron military personnel section superintendent. She oversaw the PERSCO team, or personnel support for contingency operations.
Pope said PERSCO sets up receiving, processing, out-processing, casualty reporting and anything else to do with people and accountability. She added her team has done a phenomenal job during the training.
“I’m getting a lot of feedback from the team,” Pope said. “They are loving all the hands-on [aspects of the exercise]. It’s helping to make the training all come together for them. And they’re realizing some of the things they thought they knew, when the call to action comes, they really didn’t know.”
Pope said her Airmen actually asked for more scenarios like the exercise. They gave the example of the weapons familiarization with security forces.
“They asked for quarterly refreshers just to keep the training fresh in their minds,” Pope said. “They want the real stuff. They don’t just want to sit in an auditorium, watching and clicking through the slides. ‘Give us more.’ That’s their biggest takeaway, that’s what they are asking for.”
Overall, the hands-on portion of the exercise resonated across the board.
“It’s interesting to work alongside other entities outside of civil engineering,” said Senior Airman Tristen Flores, 445th Civil Engineer Squadron fuel and water systems maintenance technician. “It gets you out of your comfort zone and helps you understand everyone else’s job.
You get to see their concepts and how they think about everything in a different perspective.”
In every unit effectiveness inspection cycle, units must complete two full-scale readiness exercises. The wing conducted it’s first exercise for this UEI cycle with Exercise Merciful Valkyrie in 2022. Though the wing was able to get exercise credit with last year’s deployment, Vigilant Elk 24 added more preparation for the wing’s UEI in calendar year 2025.
| Date Taken: | 11.01.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 11.13.2024 10:18 |
| Story ID: | 485162 |
| Location: | WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, OHIO, US |
| Hometown: | WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, OHIO, US |
| Web Views: | 35 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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