Teamwork highlighted as reservists work with RAF Mildenhall Airmen

  • Published
  • By Karen Abeyasekere
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  Twenty three 459th Air Refueling Wing reservists from Andrews Air Force Base in Washington D.C. spent March 13 through 28 at RAF Mildenhall fulfilling their annual training requirement.

The majority of the Airmen were from the 459th Logistics Readiness Flight, while others were from the public affairs office, communications flight and wing chaplain office. While here, their training included supply, customer service, maintenance readiness spares packages, squadron training, contingency operations and vehicle maintenance.

Once the reservists were trained on core tasks, RAF Mildenhall's Airmen signed off on their upgrade training.

"One of the main benefits for us is that we were low on manning, because of deployments and TDYs," said Master Sgt. Paula Southerland, 100th Logistics Readiness Squadron plans and readiness superintendent. She added that while the reservists were here, manning was temporarily improved.

According to the superintendent, the additional Airmen proved to be a huge help during the recent Phase I exercise. One of the Airmen, Senior Airman Simone Sydnor, built a scheduling board from scratch to backup logistics events scheduled on the computerized database.

"She built the board herself, and spent time putting all the information on it. We had to relocate for the exercise when it was simulated that the (local area network) went down," she said. "We had no computer access, and because of (Airman Sydnor's) hard work, we had all our information stored safely and immediately at hand."

Tech. Sgt. Tonya Smith, from La Plata, Md., also helped out in the 100th LRS Logistics Plans office. She volunteered for the night shift during the exercise, and for going above and beyond what reservists are usually expected to do, Col. Jeffery Bateman, 100th Mission Support Group commander, presented her with his commander's coin for her efforts.

Sergeant Smith said when she found out she was coming overseas for training, she was very excited.

"I'm always up for an opportunity to get trained in my military career field," said the budget analyst whose regular job is with a defense contractor in Washington, D.C. "I was active duty for eight-and-a-half years - working in supply for five years and logistics for three-and-a-half years. I was stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska; Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.; Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, and Langley Air Force Base, Va. England is a beautiful country, with very friendly people and I'd love to come back again."

The reservists who worked in the logistics plans section trained on the Deliberate Crisis Action Planning and Execution Segments database, which shows any real-world tasks that flow down.

Their training included working with the Logistics Module used to collect information on deployments, and checking that load lists were accurate. The LOGMOD system shows the number of people blocked for deployments, and lists the cargo used for exercise deployed scheduled events.

Master Sgt. Warren Allen, 459th LRF, has been in the reserves for 26 years, following four years on active duty. As a network engineer for a scientific research company in Washington D.C., he said he hadn't wanted his active duty service to go to waste.

"I like what I do," he said. "I like the people I meet, I like to travel, and you get to see a lot of different things while in the reserves. It's also an opportunity to gain knowledge."

Sergeant Allen said while at RAF Mildenhall, he and his Airmen palletized kits and used scales to weigh them, which they hadn't had the opportunity to do before. They also trained on 10K forklifts.

"One of our guys has had maintenance supply liaison training here, which is a huge benefit because he's going TDY soon," he said. "We also have points of contact (at the 100th LRS) now, so if we have any questions when we get back, we can get in touch with them."

One of the reservists, Staff Sgt. Shaun Walker, a fire truck mechanic at Dulles airport, in Washington D.C., worked with the 100th LRS fire truck maintenance section, and according to Staff Sgt. Nicholas Jacobs, 100th LRS Fire Truck Maintenance section, it was extremely beneficial.

"There was a mechanical problem on one of the rescue trucks, and we've been searching for the cause of it for quite a while," he said. "He spotted what it was after five minutes. Sergeant Walker has taught us a lot - we're supposed to be training him on different fire trucks, but he's been pointing out things that we didn't know."

Another group worked in vehicle maintenance and fuels, and their senior enlisted member said the training opportunity was a huge success all round.

"The knowledge that we gain from coming here, you can't buy it," said Chief Master Sgt. Stevie Gray, 459th LRS chief enlisted manager. "We get that hands-on experience, which is something that we really, really need in order for us to do our jobs.

"Combined with that, these (reservists) get to deal with their counterparts, and we'd like to thank everybody here," he added. "The 100th gave us the opportunity to get our guys at the 459th trained. That's what we really needed - to be able to come over here and get the training is great.

The chief said he felt there was definitely a benefit to both the active duty members and the reservists.

"Those who haven't been active duty before get a feeling for what it is to be in the active duty status," Chief Gray said. "Not only that, but they get hands-on training so they know exactly what is required in their position. It's been wonderful, and there's an exchange of ideas. We've been able to give them some of the experiences we have, as well as getting experience from them."

The 100th LRS commander, Maj. James Lovewell, said he was impressed with the work the reservists did here.

"Our visitors from the 459ths LRS had a tremendous positive effect on the 100th LRS's mission," he said. "The new perspectives they brought to our mobility processes during the Phase I exercise, were particularly helpful."