Ramstein wings complete base exercise

Service members from the 86th Airlift Wing and 435th Air Ground Operations Wing completed a mass-casualty exercise Thursday on Ramstein.

The exercise began Tuesday, and also was complemented with participation from U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern, allowing several units in the KMC to participate in the scenarios.

“Although the start of the exercise was Tuesday, we started the inject-scenarios last week to set up the background information,” said. Lt. Col. Jeremy Eldred, the inspections and readiness chief for the exercise.

The exercise, Wing Thunder 11, covered the knowledge and skills of service members by testing emergency command and control across the entire KMC, including response to mass casualties, biological decontamination procedures, personnel accountability, explosive ordnance disposal, and response to an active-shooter scenario.

“The motivation of everyone involved has been pretty positive,” said Master Sgt. Nathan Davis, 86th Inspections and Readiness office exercise planner.
“People understand we have to learn how to respond appropriately in case of real-world events.” More than 400 exercise evaluation team members from both wings participated in evaluating the scenarios.

“We try to make the exercise as real as possible when planning the situations,” Eldred said. “The Exercise Evaluation Team members are experts in their respective fields and I rely on them to give me the critiques and then from there, we compile the data and identify any trends that may be repeating from previous exercises.”