MARINE CORPS AIR STATION, IWAKUNI -- With the entire Marine Corps watching, Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni threw itself into Venom Thunder with a vengeance, paving the way for a new type of counter chemical warfare training for the 21st century.
The exercise, held Monday through today, tested the Station's ability to react to a chemical or biological incident while maintaining combat operational readiness.
"Venom Thunder is the test-bed for this type of training for the entire Marine Corps," said Lt. Col. Thomas Abel, Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron commanding officer. "In a traditional Nuclear Chemical Biological incident, the entire base would basically have to be shut down. We are changing that with this exercise, showing that we can remain combat operational while at the same time protecting our population."
The exercise consisted of six main events, including a contamination avoidance exercise, sounding the public address system, refueling aircraft in a contaminated area, mass casualty evacuations, preparing an aircraft for operations, and finally a civil defense exercise dealing with industrial type accidents.
"I am extremely impressed with the way Iwakuni has put on this exercise," said Chief Warrant Officer 3 George Lawson, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing NBC officer, who traveled to Iwakuni from MCAS Futenma, Okinawa to observe. "What makes this exercise so exciting is that it's a complete throw-away from doctrine. Iwakuni is on the cutting edge of counter chemical warfare training. They are showing us the future."
That future had at least one pilot singing Venom Thunder's and Iwakuni's praises.
"This is something that's never been done before in the Marine Corps," said Capt. Jon Wilson, a 1st MAW pilot from Futenma who flew into Iwakuni in his KC-130 as part of the exercise. "As a pilot, I can definitely say this is a tremendous confidence boost for us, knowing that the ground crew can get us refueled, reloaded and back to the mission no matter what the chemical or biological situation may be on the ground."
And that added confidence, according Maj. Paul Riegert, 1st MAW plans officer, comes from the ground up.
"The Marine Corps definitely picked a good spot to use as a test-bed for counter chemical warfare training," said Riegert. "The Marines here, though learning along with the rest of us, display a can-do attitude. Their faces seem to say, 'we can do anything.' After watching them here today, I believe they're right."
Despite all of the accolades Iwakuni received during the exercise, Sgt. Cory Coulter, Station NBC chief, pointed out that there were stumbling blocks along the way.
"The whole purpose of this exercise is to learn," said Coulter. "You can't be the building block for the entire Marine Corps without making adjustments. Fortunately, we had a flexible plan in place, and when something didn't go as well as we wanted, we learned to do it another, better way."
According to Abel, learning was the underlying purpose of the entire exercise.
"Although no plan survives first contact with the enemy, a plan must be of sufficient strength to be able to see its way to a successful completion," said Abel. "Our plan was of such strength that it was able to overcome any situation that arose. Venom Thunder was a resounding success."