Flexible response key to emergency management

A chemical attack strikes Vogelweh. Meanwhile, Aviano Air Base, Italy, acts to recover from a high-explosive event outside the gate. While these scenarios were only part of an exercise, determining how to respond to events like these was the purpose of the Flexible Response ’08 Training Seminar held at Ramstein Sept. 18 to 20. 
  
Flexible Response was a joint chiefs of staff- sponsored command post exercise.  The exercise was designed to train U.S. European Command and service component headquarters staffs on how to conduct consequence management and foreign consequence management to mitigate significant events within Europe. The seminar at Ramstein included nearly 100 participants from units throughout U.S. Air Forces in Europe, U.S. Army in Europe, European Command and Germany. They focused on Air Force activities and on how the various levels of command would respond to the incidents.
   
“It was an outstanding training event for our participants,” said Mr. Phillip Romanowicz, 3rd Air Force’s chief of exercises and training analysis. “Our goal was to help commanders at the wing, numbered air force and major command level understand what each other was going to do during a consequence management event. We wanted the commanders to also gain an appreciation of the complexities of managing such an event in a controlled environment so that they will be better prepared to face the issues if it were to really happen.”
    
Seminars like the one conducted at Ramstein are being conducted with all the service components in Europe and at EUCOM.