RENO, Nev. - The 152nd Airlift Wing, Nevada Air National Guard, conducted a continuity of operations and natural disaster exercise Sept. 25 to evaluate the base’s ability to operate in a degraded environment — in this case, following a simulated large-scale earthquake.
The exercise began at 8 a.m. with the delivery of a situation report to Col. Catherine Grush, wing commander. At 8:15 a.m., the simulated earthquake hit the greater Reno-Tahoe area. This was followed by an aftershock that notionally destroyed or shut down all but one building on base and knocked over the static display aircraft, closing off traffic at the front gate.
“We compressed about seven days into a six-hour time period,” said Maj. Dimitrius Kassebaum, exercise planner. “I saw great leadership and excellent followership, making this exercise a success.”
Response for the earthquake and some tailored injects kept the exercise on track. The goal was to conduct a continuity of operations movement on base (versus the standard practice of deploying elsewhere). The wing was required to generate a deployment line, get folks out the door on a simulated deployment to the Horn of Africa, and stand up a modular airborne firefighting system aircraft to assist with nearby wildfires.
Toward the end of the exercise, overwhelmed Reno police requested assistance from the base (13 security forces members) to help downtown. Guard members accomplished all of this in the turmoil of a severely degraded environment.
All in all, the day went smoothly.
“From my perspective, as the wing commander, you more than met the intent of the exercise,” Grush said.
The exercise helped meet the base’s readiness goals and one of the adjutant general’s priorities of advancing full spectrum readiness.
“More exercises like this one, which combine the requirements of multiple regulation-driven objectives, are on the horizon for the Nevada Air National Guard,” said Lt. Col. Christopher LeRoy, wing inspector general.