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 Florida Air Guard holds realistic ORE training By Tech. Sgt. Thomas Kielbasa
                Florida Air National Guard Public Affairs
 Explosions thumped in succession across the air base and pale yellow smoke plumed over the fighter jets. As klaxons wailed in earsplitting alarm, the ground crews scattered across flight lines and sought cover. Their fingers numb in the frosty morning air, the Airmen scrambled to put on chemical masks and ran to the closest protective bunkers. Seconds meant the difference between life and death; this was a lethal blister agent attack on Florida National Guard Airmen. This realistic scenario was part of a recent training exercise for the 125th Fighter Wing at the Jacksonville International Airport. The National Guard unit was participating in an intense Operational Readiness Exercise Jan. 22-25 where it was tested on how its Airmen would react during a deployment to a combat zone in Southwest Asia. This exercise was in preparation for an upcoming Operational Readiness Inspection the125th will conduct in May. In 2006 the unit received an "Outstanding" rating on another readiness inspection, and the Airmen were training hard to repeat the near-perfect score. Besides periodic missile attacks, the exercise included random terrorist threats, civil unrest and situations that a deployed fighter wing could encounter in a war zone. During a break in the seemingly constant attacks on his unit, Fighter Wing Commander Col. Bob Branyon explained that the scenarios were "very hostile – almost like a World War III environment." He said the simulated chemical and terrorists attacks honed the combat skills of the more than 1,000 Airmen participating in the exercise: F-15 Eagle fighter jets were forced to take off or land during chemical attacks, the base security forces were constantly tested by terrorists hiding in the nearby woods, and even the base fire fighters and finance personnel were on high-alert for hours on end. Col. Branyon noted the majority of the participants in the exercise were traditional Guardsmen, and therefore not used to the intense combat scenarios thrown at them throughout the week. "We only see them sometimes for two days a month, and we are expecting them to be full-up combat Airmen to perform any mission throughout the world at any given time," he said. "It takes a special dedication for these men and women to get these combat skills, and it takes a lot of preparation and work on the part of our full-time personnel to set up the training." One of those Airmen was Staff Sgt. Patrick Greaney; during the week he is a junior at the University of Central Florida and a pyrotechnics expert at Universal Studios in Orlando, but when he steps on to the fighter wing base he is an F-15 crew chief. On the morning of Jan. 24, however, he was lying prone on a stretcher and simulating being a victim of a missile attack. While waiting to return to the exercise, Greaney explained that quickly switching roles from his civilian life to his military life was the most difficult part of the week for him. "That's probably the hardest part," Greaney said. "Monday morning I had to be here and be ready for the military again. It's a challenge, but that's what we signed up for." Greaney joined the Air Guard after serving five years as an infantryman in the Florida Army National Guard. He called the exercise "the toughest thing I've done" since joining the Air Guard, but he felt the unit could rate another "Outstanding" on the next readiness inspection. "From what I've seen on the flight line I think we're doing pretty well," he said. During the repeated attacks throughout the week, the 125th's Public Affairs Officer Maj. Richard Bittner added another element to the exercise by throwing in simulated queries from media, messages from concerned family members and even phone calls from terrorists fishing for intelligence. Based on the Airmen's responses to his phone calls, he could judge whether they were following procedures or giving away critical information on the unit's operations. Bittner, who returned from a tour in Iraq late last year, said the goal was to throw as many "curveballs" at the unit so if it really deployed to a combat zone it could complete its mission no matter what. "The mission has to go on," Bittner said. "You have to fly, you have to fight...You have to win."
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