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Major Accident Response Exercise Educates Fairchild AFB Airmen, Community
by U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Ryan Lackey
August 5, 2019
Team Fairchild Airmen and 18 local and other government agencies
responded to a Major Accident Response Exercise in preparation for
the base’s Inland Northwest SkyFest Open House.
The MARE is a
“worst case scenario” simulation of several incidents that prompt
Airmen and civilian partner agencies to react and gain control of
situations in the event something happens during the show.
“I
think this exercise will take us to a point where we are as prepared
as we can be,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Clayton Simon, 92nd
Air Refueling Wing Inspector General exercise planner. “There’s no
way you can be fully equipped for an unfortunate event like this
because you don’t know what’s going to happen, but I would say that
we’re well-prepared.”
To ensure the exercise was as realistic
as possible, Simon went to key people from units on base and to
off-base agencies for guidance to best educate and train Airmen and
employees in case of an unfortunate accident.
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Firefighters from the
Airway Heights Fire Department wrestle a hose while
approaching a helicopter crash trainer during a Major
Accident Response Exercise (MARE) drill near Fairchild Air
Force Base, Washington on May 9, 2019. In the event of an
off-base military incident, first-responder jurisdiction
falls on the community that it occurs in. Team Fairchild
maintains partnership agreements with local Senior Airman Ryan Lackeyities to
help manage any off-base incidents. (U.S. Air Force photo by
Senior Airman Ryan Lackey)
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“If the accident is so large that we cannot handle it ourselves,
we would call for mutual assistance,” said Kimo Kuheana, 92nd Civil
Engineering Squadron fire chief. “It’s important to have off-base
agencies participate in case a plane goes down off-base, so that our
mutual partners know what to do.”
The MARE taught Team
Fairchild several lessons that allowed Airmen and agencies to build
and strengthen their skills in gaining control of an aircraft crash
situation.
“This exercise challenged us because we usually
do one mock crash or one mock mass casualty during trainings like
these,” Kuheana said. “This time, we had three separate incidents,
with one off-base, so it really incorporated a lot of different
things and taught us what we really needed to work on.”
Team Fairchild exercise planners decided to expand the size and
scope of the exercise to allow Airmen to become more familiar with
various crash types and the actions necessary to best respond,
ensure public and base safety and further develop Airmen readiness
in the face of any situation.
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A Fairchild medical
response team carries a fellow airman role-playing as an
injured bystander during the Major Action Response Exercise
(MARE) at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington on May 9,
2019. The MARE included several simulated aircraft crashes,
mock casualties and three fires to equip Team Fairchild for
the upcoming Inland Northwest SkyFest Open House. (U.S. Air
Force photo by Airman Kiaundra Miller)
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“This exercise is significantly larger than other exercises,”
Simon said. “We want to make sure that if something unfortunate does
happen, we’re ready.”
MARE exercises pushed Airmen and
allowed them to see what improvements needed to be made in -order to
further control the response to a crash, if one were to happen.
“Everything was prepped right;
it was a really challenging exercise,” Kuheana said. “At the end of
the day, it is a good exercise because now we’re finding out what we
need to do; that’s the reason why we do them.”
U.S. Air Force |
Air National Guard
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U.S. Air Force Gifts |
U.S. Department
of Defense
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