Prairie Knight 10-1 Prepares Warbirds Published Feb. 12, 2010 Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- The 5th Bomb Wing participated in a 48-hour exercise Feb. 10 to Feb. 12 here, in preparation for the August 2010 conventional operational readiness inspection. The exercise focused on ensuring the wing is capable to survive and operate in a contingency environment and included rapid launches of B-52H Stratofortress combat sorties every four hours, said Col. Julian Tolbert, 5th BW vice commander. "The exercise helps posture us for real-world conventional operations, as well as preparing us for the upcoming conventional operational readiness inspection," said Colonel Tolbert. Warbirds participated in training scenarios that included an indoor simulation of a deployed environment and the donning of chemical gear in the aftermath of a mock airfield attack. At the conclusion of the first night of the exercise, Colonel Tolbert said, "Even in the extreme weather, our challenging flight activity plan of 24 sorties in 48 hours got off to a great start. We had more than 1,000 people at play in this exercise and they all had a great attitude and seemed to want to learn from the exercise." "We become better warriors by practicing," said Lt. Col Rolando Diaz, chief of wing plans for the 5th Bomb Wing. In an exercise with this amount of intricacy, many elements of manpower and resources are brought to the table. "Two to three months out is the amount of time an exercise like this takes to plan," said Colonel Diaz. "The further lead time the better, in ensuring the levels of injects and details [are received,] to make it more realistic." The exercise measured reactionary procedures to the presence of a chemical or biological threat. Precautions were put in place for safe training as Minot experienced extreme winter weather throughout the exercise. Exercise evaluation team members were dispatched throughout the installation to document and evaluate the wing's response to manufactured threats. EET members are comprised of "functional experts in their career (AFSC); because they have experience and are able to know the ins and outs of their job," concluded Colonel Diaz. This performance demonstrated the wing's readiness to support a conventional wartime mission and after-action reports will chronicle the wing's experience in greater-depth, and be incorporated to projections for the future.