by Airman 1st Class Collin Schmidt
341st Missile Wing Public Affairs
8/12/2015 - MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. -- Medical
personnel, emergency response and flight crew members from Malmstrom
Air Force Base banded together Monday Aug. 20 to participate in a Major
Accident Response Exercise along with members of the 120th Airlift Wing
and flight crew from the Montana Army National Guard.
Implemented to evaluate how Airmen on the base could organize and
execute a massive casualty response while coordinating with multiple
agencies across the state of Montana, the event proved to be a challenge
that would take teamwork to execute effectively.
"The exercise was successful in that the objectives we set out to
perform were accomplished," said Capt. Jason Garcia, 341st Medical
Support Squadron diagnostics and therapeutics flight commander. "There
were many moving parts to include multiple emergency response and ground
transition vehicles, and six aircraft."
Forty-two simulated casualties were successfully flown from the scene of
the accident to virtual triage centers in Great Falls and Helena,
Montana.
At the scene, The 341st Medical group integrated their team with members
of the Montana Air National Guard's 120th Medical Group and processed
15 simulated casualties.
"We demonstrated the ability to communicate and coordinate with the Army
National Guard's 1-189th General Support Aviation Battalion who
provided medevac support for 26 casualties, and local Great Falls
emergency services," said Garcia.
The local Great Falls emergency services simulated transport of one critical casualty to Benefis Health System.
According to Garcia, all the units and community partners involved
performed very well throughout the exercise while garnering valuable
observations and lessons to improve upon in the future.
Leading up to the event, preparation was crucial.
If members of Team Malmstrom and coordinating emergency personnel
already have experience in dealing with a disaster situation, that can
translate to reduced response times, eliminate confusion and ultimately
save lives with a better synchronized response.
According to participants, the best part of the MARE response was the professionalism on display at all levels.
"There was a focus by all the players involved," said Garcia. "Everyone was clearly there to learn and improve."
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Keeping the Buff young: Nondestructive inspection
by Senior Airman Jannelle Dickey
2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
8/11/2015 - BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- Like a
radiologist who can see fractures without using a scalpel, there are Airmen who
can find deficiencies in the B-52 Stratofortress bones to proactively ensure
its structural integrity.
Experts from Nondestructive Inspection, a shop within the
2nd Maintenance Squadron Fabrication Flight, interpret and evaluate aircraft or
equipment defects the visual eye can't see without dismantling the whole
component.
"NDI has six groups of methods we use to look for
surface and subsurface defects in aircraft or equipment parts," said Staff
Sgt. Joshua Martinez, 2nd MXS nondestructive inspection assistant NCO
in-charge.
NDI uses methods to include liquid penetrant, magnetic
particle, eddy current, ultrasonic, and x-ray to interpret and evaluate
defects. They also inspect aircraft engine oil to identify contaminations.
"Every 150 hours the crew chiefs pull an engine oil sample
and bring it to us to test for wear metals inside the compartment," said
Martinez.
The detections from NDI are cost-effective, save time and
prevent serious damage to the aircraft.
"We are a preventive maintenance because we catch a
defect before it can cause any catastrophic failure in the sky or on the
ground," Martinez explained. "Through our inspections we save the Air
Force a lot of money by prolonging the life of the part instead of replacing
it."
"I would consider NDI personnel as the doctors of
maintenance," said Airman 1st Class Danielle Harrington 2nd MXS NDI
apprentice. "If we find a crack in the wing before it grows to a certain
extent, we save the engine from falling off the aircraft."
After utilizing various inspection methods, NDI notes the
status, sends the part to the appropriate shop to be repaired and conducts a
final inspection before it is returned to operational status. There is no room
for error in this shop.
"We are hard on all of our young Airmen about how
important it is to pay attention to detail," said Martinez.
"Potential for catastrophic failure is high. If we miss something, the
lives of the pilot and aircrew could be at stake."
As the mission weighs heavily upon the shoulders of the
B-52, it is crucial for NDI to detect flaws early in order for it to provide
decisive nuclear deterrence and conventional firepower anywhere, anytime.
Conservation Challenge Winners Protect Military Base Environments
By Cheryl Pellerin
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Aug. 12, 2015 – Military installations and their
partners in three states have won an annual Defense Department conservation
challenge created to protect nearby ecosystems while supporting critical
military test, training and operational missions.
An important goal of the Readiness and Environmental
Protection Integration Program Challenge is to harness private-sector
creativity in accessing and leveraging novel funding sources, philanthropic
sources and market‐based approaches, REPI Program Director Kristin
Thomasgard-Spence told DoD News today in a phone interview.
The program, known as REPI, lets the military services enter
into cost-sharing partnerships with state and local governments and private
conservation organizations to preserve land use around military installations
and conserve natural landscapes in support of military readiness, she said.
“To that end, the 2015 challenge was a great success,”
Thomasgard-Spence added, “bringing together all levels of government --
federal, state and local-- local and national land trusts, other conservation
organizations and even private foundations.”
For the winning REPI 2015 projects, $6.2 million in program
funds leverage more than $21 million in partner funding to protect 28,050 acres
at military installations in three states.
Georgia Winners
In Georgia, REPI partners are Fort Benning, Fort Stewart,
the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Knobloch Family Foundation,
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service.
A $2 million REPI award, plus $2 million from the Army,
leverages more than $12 million in partner contributions to protect 7,016 acres
of habitat for about 1,877 gopher tortoises. The project seeks to avoid an
Endangered Species Act listing that could affect maneuver areas for tactical
tracked and wheeled vehicles at regional installations.
Gopher tortoises, according to the Fish and Wildlife
Service, are dry-land turtles that dig and live in multiple burrows. The
burrows add value to the ecosystem because about 360 species of other animals
-- some also protected -- use them. The species include black pine snakes,
gopher frogs, Florida mice, foxes, rabbits, burrowing owls and others.
Nevada Winners
In Nevada, REPI partners are the Naval Air Station Fallon,
the Nevada Department of Wildlife, the Nevada Land Trust, the Nature
Conservancy, the Nevada Conservation Districts Program, the Bureau of Land
Management and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
The high-desert Fallon Range Training Complex has the most
realistic strike and integrated air-warfare training available to the Navy and
Marine Corps. It covers more than 234,000 acres of land and 40,000 square miles
of airspace with extensive instrumentation and target sets.
The $2 million-plus REPI award leverages more than $4
million in partner funding to protect 11,306 acres of sagebrush habitat from
development, make it safe for the greater-sage grouse, and keep critical range
training areas unrestricted.
Some species of sagebrush survive for at least 150 years.
Healthy sagebrush protects the growth of grasses that offer shelter and forage
for many species, from songbirds, pygmy rabbits and the endangered greater-sage
grouse to mule deer, elk and pronghorn.
Maine Winners
And in Maine, REPI partners are the Naval Shipyard
Portsmouth Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, or SERE, School, the Trust
for Public Land, Trout Unlimited, the Mountain Conservancy Collaborative, the
High Peaks Alliance, the Maine Audubon Society, the Mahoosuc Initiative, and
the Natural Resources Conversation Society.
The Navy’s Redington Township property offers a harsh,
isolated winter environment where personnel at risk of capture learn survival
skills as part of the SERE school’s field training exercises.
A REPI award of $2 million is being leveraged by more than
two to one to permanently restrict development on 9,728 acres that will provide
timber harvesting and wildlife habitat, and is part of a long-term plan to
create a national remote lands triathlon dedicated to veterans’ rehabilitative
services.
Larger Efforts
“Work on these projects has already begun as the projects at
[Naval Ship Yard] Portsmouth SERE School and Fort Benning and Fort Stewart
build on existing partnerships at these installations,” Thomasgard-Spence said.
“These projects, including the Fallon Training Range Complex project, are also
part of larger efforts already underway to conserve important landscapes and
species habitat.”
The REPI Program began in December 2002 when Congress passed
statutory authority for the military services to partner with conservation
organizations and state and local governments to prevent development and
preserve habitat around military installations, the program director said.
So far the REPI Program has protected more than 362,000
acres of buffer land around 80 DoD installations in 28 states, she said.
The REPI Program started the REPI Challenge in 2012, and
after a successful pilot program in Florida and Georgia, the director said, “we
expanded the competition nationwide beginning in 2013.”
Even for applicants who weren’t selected for 2015, the
effort has spurred interest, she said. A new partnership was developed in the
local community at Camp Williams, Utah, for example.
“This was the first time Camp Williams submitted a REPI
proposal,” Thomasgard-Spence added. “This project also included very innovative
partner funding, provided through water utility surcharges.”
Good Steward
For those who wonder why the Defense Department invests
resources and effort in species and natural resource management, the director
explained that as a federal landholder, the department is legally required to
protect species, especially those listed as endangered or threatened under the
U.S. Endangered Species Act.
And often a species’ only good-quality remaining habitat is
on DoD installations, she said.
“DoD is a good steward of natural resources,”
Thomasgard-Spence added. “We actively manage and protect the lands we own and
control because it promotes a better quality training and testing environment
for soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who conduct training there.”
The department also does proactive work in areas around
installations through other partnership efforts with states and local
governments and other federal agencies, she said, because the more habitat that
is protected for these species, the less they will depend on military
installations for habitat.
“By increasing that baseline of habitat,” the director
explained, “we're improving the outcome for the species, which helps relieve
some of the pressure and some of the legal requirements that DoD has relative
to those species.”
Senior ROK-N Official Visits USNS Montford Point
By Grady T. Fontana, MSC far East Publlic Affairs
BUSAN, Republic of Korea (NNS) -- A senior official from the
Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy visited one of Military Sealift Command's newest
class of Maritime Prepositioning Force ships, the mobile landing platform USNS
Montfort Point (MLP 1), Aug. 8.
Vice Adm. Hyun-Seong Um, commander, ROK Fleet, received a
guided tour of USNS Montford Point, a mobile landing platform that can serve as
a floating base for amphibious operations and operate as a transfer point
between large ships and small landing craft.
"The tour consisted of a walk-through of the (landing
craft air cushion) deck, a tour and presentation of the ballast control, the
bridge, a video about the vessel, and meaningful discussions of the Navy's sea
base concept," said Navy Cmdr. Eric J. St. Peter, commanding officer,
Military Sealift Command Office Korea, MSC Far East.
According to St. Peter, these types of tours give U.S.
forces in Korea an opportunity to build a stronger alliance with the commander
of ROK Fleet.
"Anytime we have an opportunity to share information, I
think we should. It promotes interoperability," said St. Peter.
"These types of tours and key-leader engagements are important because
they help in sustaining and strengthening the ROK-U.S. combined forces
alliance. We are stronger and better postured to deter external aggression and
defend the Korean Peninsula when we are familiar with each other."
According to Um, the Montford Point crew was working on
behalf of Korea so the ROK Navy was very supportive and proud of the strong
alliance. Additionally, Um, who travelled with a staff of other high-ranking
officials, displayed great interest in the Montford Point for its "very
interesting concepts."
"Montford Point can operate like a floating pier at
sea, 25 miles from shore," said civilian mariner Captain Kurt N. Kleinschmidt,
the Montford Point's master. "We are still in our infancy, but are working
to be able to serve a variety of shore connectors for Marine Corps amphibious
landing forces."
Montford Point is one of two MLPs that will be part of the
Navy's "Sea Base" concept that provides the capability to transfer
vehicles and equipment at-sea through Sea State 3, improving the U.S.
military's ability to deliver equipment and cargo from ship to shore when land
bases don't exist, according to Kleinschmidt. Sea state is the general
condition of the free surface on a large body of water and Sea State 3 is
marked by wave heights of about two to four feet.
"When the MLP is on mission, the ship will submerge to
about 40 feet while underway to the area of operations. Once on station it
would submerge to about 50 feet, so that the (landing craft air cushion) can
drive right up on the mission deck to pick up cargo," said Kleinschmidt.
"This allows it to operate like a floating pier and will serve as a
transfer point for Marine Corps amphibious landing forces."
The MLP's flexibility is critical for humanitarian response
to natural disasters and for support to warfighters ashore. The size allows for
25,000 square feet of vehicle and equipment stowage space and 380,000 gallons of
JP-5 fuel storage.
USNS Montford Point was named in honor of the first African
Americans who entered the Marine Corps at Montford Point Camp, New River, North
Carolina, from 1942 to 1949.
MSC operates approximately 115 non-combatant,
civilian-crewed ships that replenish U.S. Navy ships, conduct specialized
missions, strategically preposition combat cargo at sea around the world and
move military cargo and supplies used by deployed U.S. forces and coalition
partners.
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