Practice makes perfect

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Mariah Tolbert
  • 4th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. --  Airmen from the 4th Fighter Wing practiced donning their gas masks and other important skills during an ability to survive and operate exercise, Sept. 26 through 27.

During these two days, more than 1,000 Airmen processed through this exercise and tested their skills in a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear environment.

"The ATSO exercise evaluates Airmen's proficiency on CBRNE activities, proper wear of equipment and if Airmen can properly transition to different zones and mission oriented protective posture levels," said Airman 1st Class Timothy Roberts, 4th Civil Engineer Squadron emergency management apprentice.

This exercise helps Airmen prepare for future operational readiness exercises and inspections, as well as for real-world scenarios. It also served as a tool to refresh Airmen's skills in a CBRNE environment, self aid buddy care, munitions identification and decontamination.

"ATSO training is meant to help the wing identify problems within the different squadrons by grading each team and forming statistics on how well they did," said Tech. Sgt. James Harrison, 4th CES emergency management craftsman. "These statistics will help each squadron determine what areas they need to work on."

Airmen participated in eight different exercises that lasted 10 minutes each. The exercises included checking for proper equipment, asset covering, post attack reconnaissance set-up with alarm red response, M8 inspection, unexploded ordnance inspections, performing self aid buddy care in MOPP 4 and decontamination.

"I learned a lot during this exercise," said Senior Airman Brandon Harb, 4th Logistics Readiness Squadron fuels distribution. "I believe it helped us all prepare for the OREs and ORI. It was beneficial to review all these processes."