Operation Saber Crown 08-06 -- Ready to save lives, defend the base

Published April 23, 2008
By Staff Sgt. Tammie Moore
52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs

SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany -- The day began with a bang, or, to be more precise, a mortar attack, kicking off the base exercise. Operation Saber Crown 08-06 tests base member's ability to carry out operations and accomplish missions while in a war environment April 22, 2008.

"We are trying to refresh the minds of active duty personnel on warfighting skills that we don't necessarily use when we deploy for our current AEF taskings," said Maj. Mark Lambertsen, 52nd Fighter Wing Inspections, Plans and Programs Office chief of wing inspections. "We need to train for the worst case scenario so that reality is easier than our training."

The training done during ORIs is designed to provide each Air Force specialty the chance to discover where their strengths and weaknesses lay.

"ORI's are the one time we really put evaluators our there to test ourselves against a standard and give feedback to commanders on where we need to improve," Major Lambertsen said.

While it can be easy to be bogged down by the extra work required during an exercise, Major Lambertsen is happy to have heard Airmen making positive comments about Operation Saber Crown 08-06.

"I've heard some good comments already from some Airmen saying this small piece of training was the best training they've had in the last three years," Major Lambertsen said. "We hope that everyone takes this opportunity to learn something or pass their knowledge on. Our base populace is constantly changing and it's easy to let the corporate knowledge slide. But if we let it, it's much harder to get it back than to keep our readiness high."