Red Devil prepares Airmen for deployment Published Oct. 30, 2007 By Corey Dahl 21st Space Wing Public Affairs PETERSON AFB, Colo. -- More than 100 Peterson Airmen spent the end of October rolling across desert expanses in convoys, eating MREs and fending off insurgent combatants. But the Airmen weren't in Iraq or Afghanistan - they were just down the road from here, at Fort Carson. From Oct. 21 to Oct. 25, 130 Airmen participated in Red Devil, honing the skills they'll need for possible deployments in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. "It's about training, training, training," said Victor Duckarmenn, the 21st Space Wing's installation exercise director. "We teach basic combat skills, getting them ready for deployment and the combat zone." The Airmen went over skills such as weapons handling, convoy operations, hand-to-hand combat and self aid and buddy care. While participants also spent some time in the classroom, going over general military knowledge, most of the exercise took place outside - which was the point, said Mr. Duckarmenn. "Red Devil is the skills side," he said. "It's taking what we teach them in the classroom and applying that knowledge." Tech. Sgt. Christian Anderson, NCOIC of Operations Training for the 21st Operations Group, could deploy in the coming months and said Red Devil was exactly what he needed to get prepared. His daily job, as the non-commissioned officer in charge of training for the Ops Group, doesn't tend to require tasks involving hand-to-hand combat, he said, so the review was helpful. "As somebody who really kind of came into this cold, it gives me a much better idea of what to expect," he said. "It was pretty close - as far as I can tell - to what you'd actually be facing, so now I know what to bring, how to prepare."