Courtesy Photo | Utilitiesman 1st Class Brad Sweeting, assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion...... read more read more
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam - Recently, Seabees assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 133, Detachment Guam, participated with U.S. Air Force Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force (BEEF) personnel in support of Exercise Silver Flag. While simulated attacks were made by the enemy forces from “West Aerok,” eight Seabees provided support to Charlie Airbase during the exercise which was held at Anderson Air Force Base, Guam.
Immediately following the turnover of Camp Covington from NMCB 1 to NMCB 133, Detachment Guam sent their Seabees to Andersen AFB on the north end of Guam to support the exercise.
Silver Flag is an Air Force civil engineering exercise held at several locations across the globe. The expeditionary training is designed to set up operations at bare-base locations and features bed-down planning, base recovery, command and control and airfield recovery. The exercise also teaches a variety of specialty training to include heavy equipment operation, set up of aircraft arresting barriers, emergency airfield lighting, generator installation and maintenance, and fire rescue technician training. This is the first time the Silver Flag exercise was conducted in Guam.
For the first six days of the exercise, personnel were divided into their career fields. The time was used for training to prepare the group for reconstructing “Charlie Airbase.”
On day seven of the exercise, the “deployed forces” at Charlie Airbase came together to respond to different attacks and tasking injects put forth by the instructors. These scenarios ranged from mortar fire to chemical and biological attacks to casualties. In responding to these scenarios, the Seabees and Airmen, side-by-side in full battle gear, repaired the airfield to ensure that F-16 aircraft were capable of takeoffs and landings. The exercise took approximately 14 hours from start to finish, of which six hours were spent in Mission Oriented Protective Posture level two and four, which is protective gear used by military personnel in a chemical, biological, or radiological environment.
In the past, when Silver Flag was conducted at Kadena AFB, the Seabees of Camp Shields would often complement the exercise with personnel.
NMCB 133 was proud to continue the relations with their Air Force civil engineer counterparts.
“The Air Force’s equipment is much the same as the Seabees, but their terminology is very different,” said Chief Steelworker Joshua Eichelberger. “It took the first couple of days for us to familiarize ourselves with the Air Force terminology, but once we passed that phase, we integrated ourselves quite efficiently with our Air Force counterparts. The overall experience was very beneficial because the military continues to become more oriented towards joint operations; thus, interoperability becomes an invaluable asset.”
The Running Roos of NMCB 133 who participated in the Silver Flag exercise hit the ground running with the famous “can do” spirit and worked well with their Air Force counterparts. They were excited to be part of the exercise and have the opportunity to learn about how the Air Force operates.
“I enjoyed learning the Air Force’s power production and would love to come back to the next Silver Flag to learn the electrical side of operations,” said Construction Electrician 3rd Class Steven R. Troxell.
The training was a beneficial experience for both the Seabees and the Air Force.
The 554th Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operations Repair Squadron Engineers (RED HORSE) Squadron Detachment One Commander, Major Kevin A. Mares, when asked about Seabees participating in future Silver Flag exercises replied, “Definitely. This was the last step to open up Silver Flag to all of PACOM, and the Seabees of NMCB 133 fit right in line with our mission of training airmen and sister services in a joint environment.”
| Date Taken: | 08.23.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 09.22.2014 05:05 |
| Story ID: | 142854 |
| Location: | GU |
| Web Views: | 283 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, NMCB 133 Detachment Guam Seabees participate in joint operations Silver Flag Exercise, by Cliff Williams, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT