The 100th Civil Engineer Squadron recently conducted a Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force (BEEF) readiness day at Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England.

Prime BEEF is a rapid-response team of civil engineers and other support personnel who are trained to respond quickly to emergency situations such as natural disasters, enemy attacks, or other crises to repair and maintain base infrastructure, utilities, and equipment. This support is essential to ensuring the continued operation of Air Force bases and the safety of personnel and equipment, which is why Prime BEEF days are regular occurrences in the CE career field. However, this time the 100th CES also had another initiative in mind: the 100th Mission Support Group’s Proficiency and Contingency Readiness Days initiative.

“Our approach to these Proficiency and Contingency Readiness Days is to make them as valuable as possible for our team,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Anna Narduzzi, 100th CES commander. “In the civil engineer squadron, we cover everything across the contingency sphere. We are doing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear operations, airfield damage repair, bed down action, and base recovery.”

Under the new 100th MSG initiative, units are reshaping their old training days to readiness days with the specific intent to prepare for contingency and potential wartime responses.

“This approach is different from the previous approach in the fact that it is a more deliberate readiness experience,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Keith Williamson, 100th CES Prime BEEF manager. “We are no longer sitting at our desks, on a random training day, doing computer-based training. We are taking a more deliberate approach to hands-on readiness, focused on getting after the mission.”

This is the first step in a larger effort by the 100th MSG to ensure that all of its squadrons are equipped to respond to a variety of scenarios, from natural disasters to enemy attacks.

“The readiness initiative prepares us to go out the door and do our job in different ways,” said U.S Air Force Airman 1st Class Hugo Rodriguez, 100th CES pavements and equipment technician. “Sometimes you have to think on your feet and be more reactive, and I think this is a good way of doing that.”

As the 100th MSG is placing a renewed emphasis on deliberate readiness, units are also looking at ways how technology can bolster and enhance their capabilities to prepare for and counter emerging threats.

“We use drones to identify unexploded ordinances (UXOs) on an airfield,” Williamson said. “That’s something that decreases the time to complete the Rapid Airfield Damage Assessment System process. Instead of us going on foot and putting ourselves in danger to identify craters or UXOs, we are using drones to fly over the airfield to identify these dangers and map out the airfield.”

During the readiness day, Airmen from the 100th CES practiced their skills in a simulated wartime environment, focusing on tasks such as base repair and emergency response. The readiness day was designed to test the squadron’s ability to respond to a variety of scenarios, and to identify areas for improvement.

“We make a point in our readiness training to ensure that our team has a chance to practice adaptability,” Narduzzi said. “We add in different variables for them, whether it be limited communications, power, or manpower, so they have to practice their problem solving and their mission command to make the mission happen.”

As the 100th MSG continues to roll out this initiative, other squadrons have also been gearing up to follow suit with the opportunity to participate in similar Proficiency and Contingency Readiness Days, with the goal of creating a more cohesive and effective response to contingency situations.

“My experience with these new readiness initiatives are overall positive,” Rodriguez said. “We learn a lot with these Prime BEEF days. I like the mission-oriented protective posture gear. We don’t get to do that all that often, and you know you have to practice how you play.”