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1st SOCES holds 96-hour bivouac exercise
Airmen representing units across the 1st Special Operations Civil Engineer Squadron packed their gear and left for Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia, Nov., 5-9, 2022.
Together, they participated in a five-day, culminating bivouac field exercise to test their capabilities to provide base recovery, beddown, and sustainment capabilities.
While training at Dobbins, the civil engineers main focus was to simulate securing an enemy airfield and establishing important base infrastructure.
As part of the exercise mission-centric teams worked through a variety of obstacles and responded to potential explosives, hazards, and fires. Additionally the teams conducted full base recovery operations in a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives environment.
“Once we get on the ground in an austere environment, we establish an airfield and housing to prepare for pilots to execute their mission,” said 1st Lieutenant Elizabeth Queen, 1 SOCES readiness and emergency management flight commander and bivouac mission commander. “A lot of the equipment we use to do this is not available at our home station, so we needed our team to get hands-on training.”
Senior Master Sgt. Caleb Schauder, 1st SOCES operations flight superintendent, said the exercise scenario is based on the unit’s prime base engineer emergency force program training that is conducted monthly.
“We’re assigned teams broken down by our Air Force Specialty Codes (AFSC) and we’re given tasks throughout the week to complete,” Schauder said. “That includes everything from our bed down to exercising full rapid airfield damage repair capabilities and really honing in on the strength of our Airmen on the ground.”
The group of Airmen broke into four Multi-Capable Airman (MCA) teams to respond, and recover following a simulated attack of a forward-deployed air base. The idea behind MCAs is to train Airmen on basic skills outside of their assigned career field, making more versatile and adaptable Airmen.
“It was a really unique effort on the part of the squadron to lean forward and develop these MCAs,” Schauder said. “And it shows what that really looks like in the future as far as supporting Special Operations Force Generation (SOFORGEN) and Air Force Force Generation (AFFORGEN) where we take the mission command structure and what the commander's intent is, get out in the field with limited resources and just rely on our teammates and their knowledge to execute.”
Each of the teams benefited by having cadres assigned to Dobbins there to guide each group and familiarize them with new equipment.
“The hardest part was upheaval marking; as an engineering assistant, when a bomb leaves a crater on the airfield, I’m the first guy to go and make sure I am able to mark the area,” said Airman 1st Class Benjamin Mensah, 1st SOCES engineering apprentice. “The cadre went behind me to check whether it was good, and everything was perfect, so that was the best part for me.”
Training events like the bivouac provide opportunities to learn and gain valuable experience at each level of the enlisted force and officer structure, Schauder commented.
Additionally, he emphasized the importance of building trust within the unit and empowering Airmen, at all levels, to feel confident in their abilities.
“That empowerment in order to execute the mission is absolutely vital,” said Schauder. “They have to know that we trust them in order to feel like they can make the right decision at the right time.”
“This is a good step in the right direction and if we can eventually get to a point where we can go off site and be 100% dependent on ourselves and our inherent capabilities within the squadron, we will be right where we want to be to support AFFORGEN as intended,” he added.
| Date Taken: | 01.12.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 01.17.2023 09:47 |
| Story ID: | 436693 |
| Location: | HURLBURT FIELD, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 95 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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