JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- Readiness requires insightful planning, extensive training and strategic execution. The 87th Civil Engineer Squadron’s Installation Office of Emergency Management and the Explosive Ordnance Disposal units partnered together to effectively accomplish any emergency task through careful coordination across multiple teams at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, Jan. 28, 2026.
The IOEM hosted a training exercise to practice proper communication and evaluate response time between agencies, including security forces, medical, fire and other squadrons involved in responding to emergencies. Their objective was to work through chaos and create a team equipped with the appropriate skills for the simulated contaminated incident.
“The purpose of this event is to make sure all the agencies can meet each other prior to accidents and incidents happening,” said U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Sierra Raynor, IOEM non-commissioned officer in charge. “It’s good for people to meet face-to-face and work out what their standard operating procedure says, what ours says and if we are aligning with what the incident commander’s objectives are.”
The IOEM plans to meet with the other agencies on a quarterly basis. While still in the early phases of development, the training is designed to set the standard and procedures for conducting large scale multi-unit exercises. This allows the service members to continuously remedy how the team communicates amongst the different units.
“It gets all the agencies responding with common terminology,” Raynor said. “If we’re coordinating with EOD or even other agencies outside the Air Force, we all can try to speak the same language.”
Cohesion across all agencies comes from giving service members of all ranks the opportunity to familiarize themselves with other team members and the resources they provide.
“My main thing is networking, networking, networking,” said Senior Airman Jasia Waddell, 87th EM training section lead. “If you don’t know the answer you need to find someone who does. We have to be able to interact with other people, especially those higher ranking.”
According to Raynor, this first iteration of training produced positive results for the IOEM. It allowed the agencies to challenge their individual confidence and reflect on potential areas of improvement to address in the future.
“I think for us it built more grit.” Waddell said. “It was hard, but we were able to stick it out and continue doing it and complete the mission. We didn’t give up at any point, we kept going, kept pressing and although there were little hiccups here and there, everything got taken care of.”
By establishing communicative clarity and mitigating barriers, collaborative training has produced favorable outcomes for the units involved. Between exercises and real-world incidents, the IOEM remains dedicated to excellence by accomplishing their mission through adversity.