Travis Airmen on alert

  • Published
  • By Airman Madelyn Ottem
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  The Air Force is comprised of Airmen trained extensively to become specialists in their career field.

While knowing the ins-and-outs of the job is important, the Air Force also places heavy importance on the concept of teamwork in order for mission efficiency and success.

The Travis Task Force reflects these ideals and practices perfectly.

"The task force is a multi agency response organization made up of key agencies that would respond to an incident here at Travis," said Tech. Sgt. Craig Rause, 60th Civil Engineer Squadron NCO in charge of emergency management. "The agencies include emergency management, explosive ordinance disposal, fire and emergency services, security forces, bioenvironmental and medical."

Each unit in the Task Force displayed their ability to effectively accomplish their job specific mission while simultaneously working together to accomplish a bigger mission Oct. 20 during an exercise that coincided with Air Mobility Command's Staff Assistance Visit.

The scenario involved a car accident between a delivery van transporting radiological isotopes and a privately owned vehicle, Rause said. When security forces arrived on scene, the radiological detectors they were wearing were alarmed, meaning there was a leak of some sort. Security forces promptly notified medical and fire and emergency services.

"The notification to Medical and FES is important because if the casualties had been contaminated, they need specific medical treatment," Rause said.

From there, FES called in the joint emergency management and bioenvironmental team to identify the radiological source and identify if there was a potential health risk for the responders and other Wing personnel.

After each phase of the scenario, leaders of the different units had the opportunity to convene and evaluate what went well and how the team can be improved.

"There is nothing worse than showing up to a real world incident and meeting people for the first time," Rause said. "By working together, all of the players get to know each other and the capabilities each agency brings to the fight."

"The mission is to provide the installation with synchronized preparation, planning, response and recovery during major accident, natural disasters and terrorist incidents," Rause said.