824th BDS demonstrates combat readiness at MRX

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Ryan Callaghan
  • 23d Wing Public Affairs
CAMP BLANDING, Fla. --  The Airmen from the 824th Base Defense Squadron proved they are ready to deploy after successfully completing a mission readiness exercise (MRX) March 13, 2015, at Camp Blanding, Fla.

The MRX was a four-day exercise designed to test the squadron's unique "first-in" force-protection mission. Members of the 824th BDS worked alongside their mission partners from the 105th Security Forces Squadron from Stewart Air National Guard Base, N.Y., to gauge the effectiveness of their defense operations at a bare-bones base in a simulated hostile environment.

"We're looking to evaluate the squadron on their overall cohesiveness, from the lowest level all the way to the leadership level," said U.S. Air Force Capt. James Hewett, 820th Combat Operations Squadron operations officer. "We (need to be able to) come into an area, integrate with local forces, develop a solid security plan, and then execute. If there are bad guys, we try to help the host nation weed them out."

Beyond cohesiveness, the 820th Base Defense Group leadership measured and evaluated the entire process to see if the squadron would positively affect their environment downrange.

"The MRX is ultimately a tool for the group commander to evaluate a squadron and their capabilities," said Staff Sgt. Joseph Crotty, 822nd Base Defense Squadron standards and evaluations NCO. "We evaluate (their performance) based on checklists containing items that need to be accomplished before these individuals are allowed to push downrange. We set up the exercise to hit all of those topics.

"The difference between doing this at Moody versus Camp Blanding is that Moody is familiar," Crotty added. "Our Airmen know the ins-and-outs of Moody's training areas so Blanding provides a new, unknown environment ... like you would find downrange."

In addition to providing a realistic training environment, the MRX allowed Airmen the opportunity to see the deployment process firsthand.

"Even though it's an exercise, going through the motions of actually deploying a unit to a forward operating base enhances mission readiness," Hewett said. "So when they actually get the call (to deploy) it's not their first time going through all of their equipment or the process to understand the environment, intel and possible threats ... they've gone through that process before and this is their rehearsal."

Because the 820th BDG is constantly on-call, the MRX ensured their squadrons are ready to go at a moment's notice.

"The best way to be ready for your mission is to keep on training and the MRX allows us to train for real-world deployments," said Airman 1st Class Jacob Gorter, a member of the 105th SFS. "When you're put in a stressful position, the best thing you can do is fall back on your training.

Gorter believes "the more training (a unit) does, the better they are when they're deployed."