RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany -- The
mission of the 435th Contingency Response Group is to open up bare bases and
air fields in austere environments. During base-opening operations, they may
face a variety of threats. In the past, those who needed training to counter
these threats needed to travel stateside to attend contingency response
courses. The 435th CRG created Contingency Response Top-Off to replace
stateside requirements and provide all necessary training locally in three days,
saving thousands of dollars and hundreds of man hours, and building a better
bond between trainers and students.
Tech.
Sgt. Joshua Sams, 345th Security Forces Squadron section chief for flyaway
security and the combatives program, was one of the instructors during a recent
CR Top-Off class.
“Training
here is more effective than sending them back to the States,” Sams said. “Not
only are we saving time, energy, and effort by training them locally but
they’re getting trained by the same security forces members who deploy with
them. We’re enhancing our relationships, camaraderie, and capabilities by
working with one another.”
Sams
said that the CR Top-Off training is a three-and-a-half day course teaching
integrated defense, force protection, and tactical casualty care. Integrated
defense encompasses all the 345th SFS operations and training that
are involved in defending a base; while force protection describes the
preventative measures taken to mitigate hostile actions against base personnel,
resources and information. Tactical casualty care involves caring for wound
victims in combat situations.
Participants
spent time in classroom receiving knowledge on topics such as use of force,
entry control point operations, and tactical movements and formations. On field
day the participants suited up in helmets and body armor, loaded blank
ammunition into their weapons and headed out to the woods on Rhine Ordinance
Barracks to do hands-on exercises such as checking vehicles for simulated
explosives, detecting improvised explosive devices, and treating and caring for
an injury victim under fire.
“The training
has absolutely been effective,” said Master Sgt. William Crismon, 435th
Contingency Response Squadron first sergeant and one of the course participants. “The
instructors here are definitely on point, very professional, and proficient in
everything that they’re doing.”
As the
participants treated simulated victims, checked beneath vehicles, and defended
their positions under simulated fire, instructors stood by to critique and give
guidance.
“The
most important part is that these members get this training which is going to
make them qualified to continue to deploy down range and continue operating the
mission of the 435th CRG successfully,” Sams said. “Without this training they
don’t have the most up-to-date tactics and techniques for what they need to do
when they get to the austere environments.”
The
435th CRG is currently in the process of training 60 personnel with CR Top-Off and
calculates that they will save approximately $210,000 and more than 10,000 man hours
by training them locally.
“The
most rewarding part has been seeing everybody operate together,” Crismon said.
“Watching the experience and expertise from the cadre and watching the team
grow.”
They
intend to continue to giving their Airmen the best-possible training, allowing
the Airmen to continue their mission with the knowledge and experience they
need to keep themselves and their country safe.