Exercise Desert Wind 11-2 readies Team Edwards for real-life emergencies

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman William A. O'Brien
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Team Edwards held an Operational Readiness Exercise and Emergency Management Exercise Feb. 14 through 18 to test the base's emergency response capabilities.
The weeklong exercise tested the base's emergency response, Airmen mobility process and deployment operations.

The purpose of the EME is to test how well the base responded to, communicated and managed an emergency situation.

The exercise's first EME was a simulated explosion in the parking lot of the Air Force Flight Test Center museum Feb. 14. For the scenario, more than 50 people posed as victims injured by the explosion. This exercise tested the incident commander's control and management of the scene, the Emergency Operations Center and Crisis Action Team to provide support to the incident commander as well as orchestrate base response; the 95th Security Forces Squadron's ability to cordon off the area surrounding the explosion and the 95th Medical Group's ability to respond to a situation with mass casualties. The EME also tested the ability of the occupants of each building's to adhere to various Force Protection levels by requiring their implementation.

The second EME was an active shooter scenario held Feb. 17 at building 3501. The scenario required the 95th SFS to neutralize the shooter and cordon off the area around the incident scene. It also required base personnel to practice the base's lock-down procedures.

Scenarios also required the activation of the Crisis Action Team, Commander Control Centers, Unit Control Centers, Unit Deployment Managers (Phase I only), Emergency Operations Center, Incident Commander and Initial and Emergency Responders, allowing for several hundred Edwards Airmen to be heavily involved in the exercise.

The Phase I Operational Readiness Exercise evaluated Edwards' ability to process deploying Airmen through a personnel deployment function line, similar to what deploying Airmen would experience while preparing for an actual deployment. It also evaluated the base's readiness program, including personnel records, briefings and programs available to deploying Airmen.

These exercises are designed to help Edwards Airmen when they deploy, as well as during a Unit Compliance Inspection.