Edwards passes Operational Readiness Inspection retest

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Julius Delos Reyes
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  After one operational readiness exercise, a re-engineered deployment process and several Phase I exercises, Team Edwards has finally passed the Operational Readiness Inspection Re-look. 

The re-look was conducted by the Air Force Materiel Command Inspector General to look at areas deemed major deficiencies during the March Operational Readiness Inspection. 

"Specifically, those deficiencies were areas that resulted in unsatisfactory," said Lt. Col. Gregory Ahlquist, Edwards Inspector General. "These were associated with Phase I of our deployment process, which is getting our folks through the deployment line." 

During the March ORI, the AFMC IG found a major deficiency in the base's suitability for movement. The base also received five write-ups in the management area, which includes orchestrating an entire movement of troops and people through the deployment processing line. 

"We had one major deficiency in departure timing, which was the most concerning," Colonel Ahlquist said. 

The base was also deficient in the mobility line functional support, which determines how well the base process personnel in the deployment line. 

"Whatever deficiencies found were during the March ORI were corrected," Colonel Ahlquist said. "Team Edwards did a fantastic job." 

During the re-look, as soon as Team Edwards received a piece of information, which included an alert order, warning order, execute order and the airflow message, they scrubbed it for as much information as possible, Colonel Ahlquist said. 

"The orders were really important," said Pierre Poudevigne, Edwards Inspector General senior exercise planner. "It sets the tone for getting the people out of the base." 

Team Edwards started gathering information about who was possibly going to be "deploy," what equipment they would need, and they acted on that immediately, Colonel Ahlquist said. 

"They started the process as soon as they could," he said. 

The base also created two groups to analyze the airflow as soon as it arrived. 

"They put together the schedule of when the troops needed to be ready to go to meet their chalk times in a short amount of time," he said. "These two cells also determined what order the troops should be processed." 

Team Edwards handled every inject AFMC IG threw at them extremely well, Colonel Ahlquist said. 

These injects included identification card process, a pregnant female preparing to deploy and some immunizations, Mr. Poudevigne said. 

"The troops continued to flow through the processing line with very few hiccups," he said. "They performed so well, we were beating chalk times." 

Colonel Ahlquist said Team Edwards displayed outstanding teamwork from top to bottom. 

"It was outstanding." Mr. Poudevigne said. "You have to give credit to the troops. They endured a lot considering the number of times we have done this over and over again. They have great spirits." 

After the re-look, Colonel Ahlquist said what the base cannot do is relax. 

"They need to keep running exercises, keep the deployment line a well-oiled machine so that it won't fall apart," he said. "We need to keep practicing and make sure that it works as well as it did during the re-look."