Exercise tests Misawa's readiness

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Rachel Martinez
  • 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan --  The 35th Fighter Wing kicked-off a three-day initial readiness response exercise Monday. This is the first IRRE the wing has held in 15 months. 

While the IRRE will include noncombatant evacuations from the AOR and the reception and bed-down of additional forces, its main purpose is to test the wing's ability to generate aircraft and deploy combat power to a given area of responsibility. 

"For us, that involves maintenance generating the jets with ops flying sorties, while simultaneously all support functions process through the deployment line and get the supplies to where they need to go," said Maj. Wes Hales, 35th FW chief of wing inspections. 

With the 13th Fighter Squadron and supporting maintenance personnel currently deployed, the exercise will test the 14th Fighter Squadron and aircraft maintenance unit's ability to generate and deploy aircraft on their own. Anticipating the challenges ahead, members of the 14th FS tried to prepare as much as possible in advance. 

"Until the order drops, we can't do much," said Capt. Craig Phelps, 14th FS pilot and unit deployment manager. "The best we can do is make sure all our deployment folders are up -to-date - they are." 

Captain Phelps and Senior Master Sgt. Steven Powell, the 14th AMU superintendent, both said the most challenging part is having everyone's mobility folders ready to go all the time. The first 24 hours of the exercise also prove to be challenging. 

"The first 24 hours are focused on getting the aircraft ready to deploy. Usually you have your sister unit supporting you, helping get the jets ready, but the 13th AMU is deployed right now," said Sergeant Powell. "The first 24 hours are very stressful because you have this timeline." 

The entire IRRE takes place over a 72-hour timeline, but in the first 24 hours the aircraft must be inspected and configured by maintenance and the pilots must accept the aircraft. 

"While maintenance is getting the jets ready to go, our job is to get the mission planning done for where we are going," said Captain Phelps. 

"The plan says 'this many combat ready aircraft by this time,'" added Capt. Matthew Kenkel, 14th FS pilot and squadron plans officer. "I take the configured jet and do fuel planning, maps, diverts. I also look at the overarching plan and create a packet for each pilot so they are ready to go." 

As preparation and planning goes on, units must send personnel to process through the deployment line. This takes people away from prepping the jets. 

"At the 25th or 26th hour we start to process people," said Sergeant Powell. "Once they process they are basically gone. They aren't available to help prep jets." 

Once all personnel are processed and the jets take off, the IRRE clock stops, according to Captain Phelps. When the jets land again, theoretically they are in the deployed location. Operations in a deployed location are tested under a phase two exercise, also known as a combat evaluation readiness exercise. 

The last time the 35th FW conducted an IRRE was in February of 2008. Considering it has been more than a year and new people have arrived, Major Hales said the intent of the exercise is not to inspect, but rather to evaluate. 

"The purpose is to knock the rust off for folks who haven't exercised this in a long time," the major said. "People should not be afraid to have improvement areas highlighted. This is the reason we do this - better to highlight areas for improvement now than when we are doing it for real. We expect a little rust, and that's normal." 

The wing is scheduled to conduct its next IRRE, combined with a CERE, in September.