Inspections on near horizon for Reserve wing

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Leticia Hopkins
  • 916th Public Affairs Office
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. --  The 916th Air Refueling Wing reservists are preparing for an Air Mobility Command (AMC) Staff Assistance Visit (SAV) scheduled for Nov. 13-17 in order to practice for an AMC Nuclear Operational Readiness Inspection (NORI) scheduled for Feb. 20-25, 2009. 

"The SAV in November will be a complete run through of the NORI that will happen in February (2009), a complete dress rehearsal so to speak," said Col. Caroline Evernham, 916th Operations Group commander. "Everyone will be here and will go through the inspection just as if we were doing it for real." 

Every 60 months AMC comes in and does an inspection on whether or not the 916th Air Refueling Wing can do its wartime mission, which is first generating and then simulating a launch of the KC-135s to their refueling mission, said Col. Fritz Linsenmeyer, 916th ARW commander. 

The mission of the KC-135 is to take off and provide air refueling to the bomber force, so they can go and strike their targets, he added. 

The nuclear portion is in support of the Operational Plan (OPLAN) and is called the 8010, previously called the 8044, said Lt. Col. Matt Young, chief of plans. The intent of the OPLAN 8010 inspection is to validate the readiness and capability to accomplish a nuclear mission. The name change is due to a change in the 916th's entire tasking
While every squadron will participate in some way, the bulk of the NORI will affect the maintenance and operations groups the most, said Colonel Linsenmeyer. The inspectors will have different criteria to evaluate the wing to include aircraft generation, employment and mission support. 

In order to prepare for the inspection, 916th wing experts were sent to other units and watched them go through their SAVs, said Colonel Young. Also testing is done every Friday and over the unit training assemblies because a lot of the success is dependent upon the aircrews. 

Despite just finishing up the Unit Compliance Inspection and AMC Standardization and Evaluation Visit, a high operations tempo, and an Air Expeditionary Force deployment that has taken many of the key staff members, several are confident in the Reservists' abilities to successfully complete the task at hand. 

"The ops group will do great, no doubt about it," said Colonel Evernham. "This is something we practice and although it's not something we do as often as the conventional aspect, everyone knows their part and is working hard to make sure it all goes well." 

Not only is the wing commander hopeful of a successful visit and inspection, but he also hopes that the Airmen of the wing gain a few other things from this experience.
"I would hope at the end of the Staff Assistance Visit for the inspection that people understand what they are supposed to be doing, are comfortable with what their wartime tasks are and have confidence in their training" said Colonel Linsenmeyer. 

He added, "The reason that we, the 916th Air Refueling Wing, are here today is to be able to provide (KC-) 135s to Air Mobility Command in the event of a nuclear war and that's in addition to the training and other things we do day to day."