Services Airmen provide shelter, food to RESCUER/MEDCEUR participants

  • Published
  • By Erin Zagursky
  • 435th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
Food and lodging: It’s something most of us take for granted.

But having to provide it at an ex-Soviet military base for a two-week multi-national exercise and for 500 to 650 people would make even the calmest person start a nail-biting habit.

However, thanks to the dedication and hard work of Air Force services professionals, the Airmen participating in RESCUER/MEDCEUR 2005 have their bellies filled and a roof over their heads.

RESCUER/MEDCEUR 2005 is a joint and multi-national military exercise held in the Republic of Georgia that will allow U.S. European Command units to practice their deployment processes and interoperability with the armed forces of other countries.

Approximately 470 U.S.service members are involved in the exercise, including active Reserve and Guard members of the Navy, Air Force and Marines.

Also involved in the exercise are approximately 475 partner-nation participants from the countries of Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia and the Ukraine.

All needing food and lodging.

Staff Sgt. Breeann Thom, 100th Services Squadron, Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England, serves as the lodging NCOIC for the exercise. Her job is to provide lodging not only for the U.S. Air Force members involved in the exercise, but for the other participating countries, excluding Georgia.

Although she expected a tent city when she arrived at Vaziani military base, she found that there were hardened buildings that could be used.

However, the concrete structures were nowhere near what Americans are used to, she said.

“But the Georgians worked day and night to get this place ready,” she said. “They repainted every room and completely renovated the bathrooms.”

In the days leading up to the arrival of the main body of participants, she created a new facility listing in the field lodging system and then booked reservations on it, trying to determine just how many people could fit into each room despite constant changes and the lack of beds for rooms.

While lodging was being arranged, a new field kitchen was being put up. The kitchen comes with everything food services personnel need, including sinks and cooking equipment.

Master Sgt. Bridget Sleppy, Headquarters USAFE Services, Sembach Air Base, Germany, said that working out of the field kitchen has been a neat experience for many of the services personnel at the exercise.

“A lot of the troops never worked on a field kitchen, so they are also getting training” she said. Two of the 16 services personnel working the exercise are actually field trainers from Ramstein AB, Germany, she said.

Airman 1st Class Starling Jackson from RAF Lakenheath, England, said he appreciates the speed and added safety of the new kitchen.

“With the old equipment, we’d have to wake up so early just to start it,” he said. “The new generators work faster and are safer because we can just plug them in.”

The new kitchen allows the services Airmen to serve the exercise participants two hot meals per day, approximately 600 people.

And those meals, along with the lodging, are much appreciated.

“It’s better than I expected. When the commander said an exercise, I was expecting to be in a tent city with MREs,” said Staff Sgt. Shanda Kent, chaplain’s assistant, USAFE Command Chaplain’s office, Ramstein AB.