When Maxwell went dark, Civil Engineers made their mark

Maxwell Air Force Base and Gunter Annex, Alabama, play a critical role in national security and are ready to project airpower no matter the threat at hand. October 19, 2023, was no different. At 1000, all electrical power was intentionally cut from the base in a meticulously planned, risk-mitigated outage to assess mission readiness in what is known as an Energy Resilience Readiness Exercise (ERRE).

The purpose of an ERRE is to ensure mission continuity by testing the impacts of a commercial electricity disruption to an installation.

Maxwell Air Force Base and Gunter Annex, Alabama, participated in an Energy Resilience Readiness Exercise (ERRE) on October 19, 2023. Electrical power was intentionally cut from the base by the commercial electricity provider, Central Alabama Electric Cooperative.

Civil Engineers responded to the ERRE with urgency, showcasing their preparedness. Their resilience posture beforehand, and agile recovery after, ensured a constant state of mission readiness and further illustrated that Air Force Civil Engineers are ready for any real-world scenarios and adverse conditions.

ERREs are congressionally mandated exercises that are proven to be one of the most effective tools available for installations to test their readiness capabilities during a controlled denial of service. “It is a rehearsal,” said 42nd Air Base Wing Commander, Col. Ryan Richardson. “This is just one step between an exercise and real-world.”

While Civil Engineers were a crucial component to the planning and execution, the exercise leveraged expertise from both the Inspector General and Exercise Program offices. This collaboration meant that the robust exercise was able to include and support everyone at Maxwell, including base tenants. Maxwell Air Force Base and Gunter Annex are also home to Air University, Defense Information Systems Agency, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Bureau of Prisons, and more, all of which took part in the exercise.

“We were pleased with the vast participation from our base tenants,” said Lisa Hathcock, 42nd Wing Exercise Program Director. “This exercise spanned far beyond what you would think of as Air Force mission critical operations, affecting the operations of our tenants, some of which could have endured serious consequences without refrigeration.”

The commissary and those living on base had to ensure their food was kept cold to keep from spoiling and schools on base, which experienced a very brief outage, had to work to get students home safely with stoplights out while the base sustained the mission.

When the power went out, Civil Engineers got to work ensuring building generators kicked into gear, identifying areas for improvement, and providing support where needed.

There was overwhelming amount of support for the 42nd Civil Engineer Squadron during the ERRE.

Reflecting on what he learned during the exercise, Greg Rollins, 42nd Civil Engineer Squadron Director, said, “We learned a lot about our generator power. When you think about all your generators on the installation, it gets to be a very big job to quickly get out, initially set, and check them because the generators may not have full tanks of fuel.”

42nd Mission Support Group Commander, Col. Brad Ledford, noted that although many challenges were faced, most were quickly overcome. He said, “Things got very quiet after about an hour and a half. Missions continued; from our mission partners at Air University who continued teaching, to vehicle inspections, and cybersecurity. We were very effective in continuing our mission not only across the 42nd ABW, but across all mission sets on the installation.”

Civil Engineers proved once again that they are ready for anything, anytime, even with the lights off.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: When Maxwell went dark, Civil Engineers made their mark