Bring the HEET!

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Francis L. Hartley
  • 482nd Communications Squadron
HOMESTEAD AIR RESERVE BASE, Fla. --  It's 2:15 p.m. on Sunday, September 11, 2011. It's been a long Unit Training Assembly weekend filled with flu shots, Computer Based Training, meetings, and a 6:00 a.m. mandatory physical training call. Everyone in the 482nd Communications Squadron is finishing up all of their training paperwork and starting to plan their exit until next month when it happens; Staff Sgt. Patrick McCarthy walks into the room and announces:

"Everyone in MOPP-4*!"

After about 10 seconds of  'you've got to be kidding me' silence and sensing the air of disbelief in the room, he says sternly, "I'm serious".

This is actually not an unusual occurrence in the 482nd CS these days. The leadership and the rank-and-file Airmen are all taking next year's Operational Readiness Inspection seriously. The unit is using several training methods, whether scheduled or unscheduled, formal or improvised, to get the information and practice needed every UTA. Everyone knows that it is difficult to get all of the tasks and training done during the limited time of the standard UTA, but adding the preparation for the ORI is especially difficult as everything else still needs to get done.

One important aspect of the training at the 482nd CS is to give each Airman a stake in the results. The unit leverages the personal knowledge, skills, and interests of each individual Airman by asking them to create their own training class on some aspect of combat readiness or ORI procedures. One of the best methods of learning a subject is to teach it. Members choose an area of interest, research it, then design and present a class on the subject. Some Airman have used personal experience in previous ORI's to help mentor others which this may be their first time.

Some of these classes so far have included Staff Sgt. Maguire's class on decontamination procedures, Staff Sgt. Amely's class on the proper use of atropine in a contaminated environment and Master Sgt. Difiore's talk on the best way to tab the Airman's manual. These classes not only help the members attending but they also help foster participation by everyone.

Even though these inspections and the preparation for them are uncomfortable and time consuming, they are done for a good reason.

As Capt.  Easevoli, 482nd CS commander points out , "It's called a 'Readiness Inspection' for a reason. We have to...need to, always be Combat Mission Ready. To be ready, you have to train, you have to prepare. And that's what we have been doing, each month, every month."

So Sergeant McCarthy was probably not the most popular Airman in the squadron for a while, but in the long run everyone in the 482nd CS knows it has to be done because they believe in the mission. They know that if we are to "Fly, Fight, and Win" we have to be ready, to be ready we have to train as much as possible, but as Reservists we also have to train as efficiently as possible.

Captain Easevoli put it simply "The 482nd CS is ready!"

*MOPP-4, or Mission Oriented Protective Posture-level 4, is a level of protective gear worn by servicemembers during nuclear, biological or chemical attacks.