LORE tests Kadena's ability to deploy

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Alesia D.Goosic
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  Airmen from the Air Force's largest combat air wing were evaluated this week on their readiness to mobilize, deploy, and regenerate personnel, cargo and aircraft.

The wing participated in a Local Readiness Exercise Beverly High 10-04, Aug 22-25, designed to test, train and evaluate the base's ability to respond to a contingency in the region.

"Kadena Airmen practiced their unit wartime missions, which included reception of inbound forces, generation of aircraft for combat operations, deployment of personnel, and bed-down of forces at a simulated deployed location," said Lt. Col. T.J. Reutiman, chief of wing exercises.

The exercise, which officially began Sunday evening, focused on preparing Kadena's Airmen to defend Japan and maintain peace and stability in the Pacific region.

During the early stages of the exercise, Airmen went through a deployment processing line where their medical records and mobility folders were reviewed and they received helpful information from base agencies. The processing line assists and informs service members deploying from Kadena.

"For this exercise, the Wing tested a new deployment processing line that allows for a more efficient flow of people from Kadena to support contingency operations," Colonel Reutiman said.

Perfecting the wing's policies and procedures during Beverly High 10-04 did not come without its challenges.

Keeping in mind that exercises are designed for Airman to train and learn from their mistakes, the LORE was paused after some discrepancies were identified.

"The LORE was reset to allow time to correct discrepancies present across the wing," Colonel Reutiman said. "The issues were identified early enough in the scenario to allow the exercise to be reset from a clean slate to ensure units received realistic and beneficial training."

Once the exercise was paused, units and personnel returned their cargo, equipment, and aircraft to a pre-deployed state and prepared to start the exercise again.

After the exercise restarted, the 18th Wing focused on correcting those discrepancies previously identified and proved they were up to the task of getting the job done under difficult circumstances.

"The wing was posed with a challenging scenario," he said, "which it responded to by successfully demonstrating the capability to deploy and establish an operating capability at a forward location."

"We are proud of the amount of effort, professionalism and sense of urgency our Airmen displayed during this exercise," said Brig. Gen. Ken Wilsbach, 18th Wing Commander. "I am confident in our ability to deliver unmatched combat airpower and to provide a forward projection platform that enables sovereign options promoting peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region."

The wing will have other opportunities to continue to improve on its deployment capabilities in upcoming LOREs.

"The wing's exercise evaluation team (EET) did an outstanding job identifying areas for improvement and overall lessons learned for all units," Colonel Reutiman said. "Their observations allow the wing to identify focus areas for future scenarios and better prepare us for real-world operations."

According to exercise officials, the next LORE will be a Phase I and Phase II and is scheduled for late October.

Click HERE to view the photo slideshow of the exercise.