Exercise, Exercise, Exercise
Airmen deploy for RAMEX

Senior Airman Melissa Maraj, Story and photos
Kaiserslautern American


***image1***More than 150 Airmen participated in a wide-scaled Ramstein deployment exercise located at the 38th Construction Training Squadron May 2 to 6.

The simulated deployment which transported Airmen to an African country to operate an Intermediate Staging Base to support airlift operations in the distribution of humanitarian assistance supplies gave members the opportunity to respond to everything from unexploded ordnances to chemical attacks by terrorists.

During the first day of the RAMEX, groups transitioned through various tents where training and briefings were available on everything to ***image2***include: Threat Condition Training, Self Aid Buddy Care, Post Attack Reconnaissance and Contamination Avoidance, Explosive Ordnance Disposal, and location set-up.

Members from mission support, medical and public health, security forces, communications, services and mortuary affairs, civil engineer readiness, and legal participated in training while being evaluated on procedures and effectiveness of training.

Emergency scenarios were placed into effect causing exercise participants to practice Mission-Orientated Protective Postures, while alarm signals and conditions were transmitted by the Survival Recovery Center, using voice, public address systems, and flags.

The basis of training during the RAMEX was to ensure that Airmen remain skilled and postured to respond to real world scenarios whether deployed or on station.

“When you are in a deployed location and things go south, that’s when solid ***image3***training pays off,” said Col. Bob Otto, 435th Air Base Wing, vice commander and on-site commander prior to the start of the exercise. “The importance of being expeditionary Airmen and having the skills needed to carry out a successful deployment are what makes this type of training important,” he said.