Edwards readies for last exercise prior to ORI

  • Published
  • By Col. George Sciss
  • Air Force Flight Test Center Inspector General
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Last dance, last chance ... OK, OK, so an Operational Readiness Exercise isn't a dance, but it is a highly choreographed event that requires everyone to be on their game for "the show to go on." And like the theater, it is important to get a good write-up from the critics.

Our next ORE runs from Jan. 29 to Feb. 2 and it's our last chance to make sure we are ready for the Air Force Materiel Command Inspector General Operational Readiness Inspection in March.

This is it folks! We have spent the last one-and-a-half years preparing for the ORI and its crunch time.

I have seen tremendous improvement over the last year in our ability to respond to disasters, deploy our folks and fight the good fight at Camp Corum. Your performance has improved each ORE, with the December exercise being the best ever.

This next operational readiness exercise is going to be our "check ride" warm-up sortie and so it is time to update your personal disaster plan, make sure you know your building's rally point, check your deployment bag and review Air Force Manual 10-100.

A couple of other points:

--Door guards: remember to check identification cards through the glass before you open the door.

-- Building managers: double check folks know how to evacuate your building and where the controls for power, gas and water are.

-- Unit control centers: make sure the signs for force protection and information conditions are properly posted.

-- Everyone: watch out for dumpster divers and report any suspicious activity.

In the past, the IG office has devised new and innovative events to test the base. For this exercise, we are going to present the most likely scenarios that we think the AFMC Inspector General will do during the ORI. As always, you can expect a recall in the early morning hours, the deployment line will spin up, various security forces exercises will happen, the base will have some sort of "disaster", and we will deploy to Camp Corum.

There will be the usual lines at the gate and some areas will be off limits.

Please cooperate with the first-responders and be patient. The 95th Security Forces Squadron defenders have made some procedural changes at the North Gate that should help alleviate the inbound traffic backup. However, if you have the option, please try to come to work later in the morning to help keep the lines under control.

Let's keep this all in perspective. I sent the operational readiness inspection 45-day package to AFMC recently. They show up in a month-and-a-half for 13 days, and then they are gone. This ORE is our last chance to make sure that the AFMC Inspector General doesn't come back anytime soon.