Hot Wash--a tool for feedback Published Nov. 25, 2009 By Master Sgt. Stan Coleman Public Affairs DOBBINS AIR RESERVE BASE, Ga. -- All military members are familiar with using exercises as a training tool. It's a tool the military utilizes on a frequent basis to ensure we are prepared to defend, rescue, react and survive in a variety of scenarios. After the exercise an evaluation is made to determine how well the exercise went. At Dobbins this evaluation is commonly referred to as the hot wash. "The hot wash gives units a means to get feedback on how they performed in an exercise or event," said Ms. Josephine Atkins-Scafe, Emergency Management acting chief. It provides the participants with "something tangible to take back to their units to correct any developing adverse trends that may impact resources and operations." "The goal with any of our exercises is to train the way we fight and to assess our ability to respond to various emergency situations," said Lt. Col. John M. Vallrugo, 94th Airlift Wing performance planner and exercise evaluator team chief. The hot wash usually occurs at the end of an exercise or operation. It can also occur at the end of each phase of an exercise or operation or at the end of each day or work shift. "The main purpose of a hot wash is to identify strengths and weaknesses of the response to a given event," said Colonel Vallrugo. "This leads to another governmental phase known as lessons learned. This is intended to guide future responses in a direction to avoid repeating errors that were made in previous exercises." Various agencies within the wing utilize the hot wash opportunity to validate what they are doing well in addition to areas that need improvement. "My unit's mission is to ensure all military members at Dobbins are prepared to deploy to meet the wing's wartime mission. This includes deployment training, mobility bags, ensuring job skill levels are achieved and assurance that Airmen are medically qualified to deploy," said Senior Master Sgt. Clarence Hester, 94th Logistics Plans superintendent. "With our mission a hot wash provides a report card of how the wing deployment work centers, control centers and unit personnel executed the deployment machine after a Phase I initial response exercise." Like all good process tools a hot wash has it challenges as well as benefits. "Participation by evaluators and players is critical in the hot wash process. If key players or processes are not participating in a given event, then it's like trying to put a puzzle together with several of the pieces missing," said Colonel Vallrugo. "You can put the picture, in this case the process or procedure, together. But there are major gaps where you just don't know what is supposed to be there. "It is also critical to keep the event from turning into a finger-pointing exercise or blame game," he said. "Once that happens, the hot wash is useless as a learning tool." For Lt. Col. Richard Alexandersen, 22nd Air Force Operation Readiness Training chief, hot washes fall into two categories--immediate and the traditional after action report. "The Immediate hot wash is used to re-enforce good behavior or modify faulty human behavior in the course of doing business," he said. "This falls into the 'learn by doing and do it until you get it right' mindset. "The traditional after action report helps a unit identify causes for faulty preparation efforts--i.e. training, equipment, and so on. From the after action report a unit or organization can develop a road map to success for an inspection and any other scenario. "As a facilitator I ensure the hot wash is an effective event by encouraging open discussion and the consideration of all views. I brief my evaluators that there are many roads that lead to Rome and yours is not the only one," said Colonel Alexandersen. In other words, "don't make others do things your way if their way works. I encourage my evaluators to "try to get the best out of people, whether they are struggling with the basics or excelling at a graduate level." So when does an evaluator know when a hot wash is successful? Colonel Vallrugo has this to say about a hot wash's success: "I like when participants self-identify problem areas or issues that the evaluators identified. It validates that a problem needs to be addressed. When you have that kind of participation from the players, it really adds value to the event and shows that the exercise was worthwhile."
