2nd MSG holds ATSO rodeo Published July 18, 2014 By Staff Sgt. Sean Martin 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- The 2nd Mission Support Group recently held an Ability to Survive and Operate rodeo on Barksdale Air Force Base, La., July 10, 2014. Various units came together, during this one-day exercise and performed combat oriented tasks such as Self-Aid Buddy Care, Post Attack Reconnaissance sweeps and unexploded ordnance detection and recognition. "Today we met at Hoban Hall at 6 a.m. and started with an intelligence and scenario brief," said Col. Patrick Matthews, 2nd MSG commander. "We then convoyed out to the simulated deployed site. Once we arrived, our objective was to set up a bare base in a country where there were simulated terrorist threats." An ATSO Rodeo combines all three missions of Barksdale into one. "The three missions we have are our nuclear deterrence mission, conventional combat air power mission, and our expeditionary mission. This type of training incorporates all three," said Matthews. Learning these skills will ensure Airmen have the knowledge and tools needed in a deployed environment. "Having these skills prepares me in the event that I deploy," said Airman 1st Class Khoy Pham, 2nd Civil Engineer Squadron entomologist. "It allows me to know what to do in the event of an attack and how to react." Although this training is nothing new to Airmen, Barksdale has recently made some changes to it. "Since we have not held something like this in a while, we were in the crawl stage," said Matthews. "We [Barksdale] need to continue this in the future. We will include more medical aspects, self-aid buddy care and more wing personnel." It was a good first effort, and will be more robust next time, added Matthews. This type of training develops muscle memory for Airmen to rely on in combat situations and still get the mission done. We in the military should focus on doing only two things, training for war and going to war.