(446th AW PA) - "Awesome day," said Brenda Pollard, a local supervisor with Installation Transportation, during the 446th Airlift Wing's Employer Orientation Day, Oct. 2. This is just one of the many sentiments expressed by civilian employers from across the Northwest region who participated in the event at McChord Field.

The bi-annual event allows reservists' civilian employers the rare opportunity to get a taste of what they do on Unit Training Assemblies and deployments, whether it is processing through a mobility line, donning chemical warfare gear, or dropping critical cargo from a C-17 Globemaster III. During their brief glimpse into the 446th AW mission, employers learned how teams of specialists train and fight.

The day started with a mock mobility line so employers would get "processed" for a deployment. The mobility line included briefers from each of the real-world stations that process airmen, such as Chapel Support, Legal, Finance, Personnel, Family Readiness, emergency management and many other wing units.

At one station, Lt. Col. Ken Winslow, a flight nurse with the 446th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, told employers how specialists provide care for the wounded and injured on board aircraft.

"During the mission of flying the wounded, injured and ill, we accomplish great nursing care," said Winslow. "There are a lot of places in the U.S. that you can get great care. We happen to do it at 35,000 feet in a noisy, dark and cold tube of metal."

"It's amazing that our country will fly across the world to save a soldier," said one of the many employers who spent the day with the reservists.

At another station on the mobility line, Chief Master Sgt. Sonja Smith, 446th Aerospace Medicine Squadron superintendent, gave employers a first-hand look at standard first-aid supplies issued to airmen before they deploy, such as quick clot, tourniquets and self- injectors for treating chemical contaminants.

Employers also spent time learning about explosives ordnance disposal, where they saw inert rockets and landmines and examples of improvised explosives, which members from the 446th Civil Engineering Squadron EOD flight expertly diffuse and continually make safe for our fighting warriors.

"It's incredible," said Jim Klienstuber, a manager with Frontier Communications and civilian supervisor of Staff Sgt. Michael Pritchett, 36th Aerial Port Squadron ramp specialist. Klienstuber sat in the flight deck behind the pilots during takeoff on an orientation flight with an airdrop mission near Moses Lake aboard a C-17.

"I'm in awe right now," said Klienstuber. "This is a once in a lifetime experience being in the cockpit of a huge airplane."