Polish team observes inspection

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Clay Murray
  • 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany --  Polish air force members visited Spangdahlem Air Base during the U.S. Air Forces in Europe Phase I Operational Readiness Inspection to gain an upper hand in inspection processes and procedures.

Next year, Polish units will undergo a NATO tactical evaluation, and members from different specialties observed several inspection events here to learn from Sabers' experiences.

"The purpose of the visit was to see and compare how we are preparing for the TACEVAL right now because our unit is going to first go through the Start Assess - like a first exam from the NATO evaluators - and then we are going to go through the real one, the TACEVAL next year," said Lt. Dominik Duda, Polish air force 6th Fighter Squadron F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot. "The purpose of the visit is to see how they do things here, what we're supposed to do and how we're supposed to look. Maybe we will find something we should do different."

Lieutenant Duda observed the base inspection as a pilot, and the Polish team he toured the base with consisted of maintenance, support and logistics officers, he said. ORIs cover a broad range of items, and the observation team spent time viewing several of them to make the most of the visit.

"First, we went to see all the Phase I tasks - like the (predeployment function) line and deployments," Lieutenant Duda said. "We saw the pilots going through the lines and doing all the preparation for the deployment. We spent a lot of time in the 22nd Fighter Squadron looking at how they plan missions and how they deploy. Then we spent the next day in the actual place where they deployed from. We were also watching guys regenerating jets and getting ready for missions. We are just waiting for the Phase II inspection - they are doing some demos right now, each according to the specific situation."

With a new grip on how inspections can take place, Lieutenant Duda and the other observers plan to take notes and information back to their units and pass on what they have seen here.

"The first thing is (Spangdahlem's) deployments are much bigger than ours," he said. "It won't be as huge as the one here, but there are some things I'm going to talk with our guys about for sure, to maybe take from you. I will definitely talk about how everything is really organized, and how you do everything step by step. It's also great that you take the whole team together to one place, which makes things easier when you deploy people."