Base exercise tests response to various emergency events

As soon as the third quarter, base-wide exercise concluded Aug. 4, Wing Inspection Team members and exercise planners turned to the task of reviewing the observations noted during events covered in their respective areas of responsibility.

The week’s exercises started early, July 31, with an active shooter response event held at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. To lessen the impact on museum patrons but still be able to evaluate the staff’s response to an active shooter scenario, the exercise started and concluded well before the arrival of any of the day’s museum visitors.

Elsewhere on the installation, and throughout the week, several individual organizations tested their members on the use of an automated external defibrillator, or AED, a potentially life-saving device for heart attack victims.

On Aug. 1, unit deployment managers, personnel deployment function staff and evaluators gathered in the Deployment Processing Center for a table-top deployment exercise. The table-top construct gave overall visibility of each participant’s area of responsibility and an opportunity to ask questions of one another, which is not always seen during traditional exercises or real-world deployments.

According to exercise officials, it was the first time that the installation employed the method for a deployment exercise.

Emergency responders, and the base populace, faced an active shooter exercise at a National Air and Space Intelligence Center facility Aug. 2. While the base went into lockdown, Security Forces members neutralized the assailant and scoured the building and its surroundings for additional threats.

Several role players, acting as the injured, were triaged by the Fire Department at the scene and prepared for transport for further care at medical facilities.

For exercise officials, those role players add realism and also help promote a sense of urgency. Their presence, as well as their portrayals of victims with a variety of injuries and trauma, gives responders a glimpse of the human part of the equation at such an event.

“One of the most important behind-the-scenes efforts is to coordinate volunteers to role play as exercise participants,” said Tom Purtle, Inspection Program manager. “Sometimes we give them speaking parts, but often they are used to portray casualties due to some sort of accident or emergency incident. When used as victims we normally prepare them in medical moulage to accurately reflect realistic looking injuries. We absolutely could not meet our exercise requirements without them.”

A Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives, or CBRNE, event scheduled for Aug. 3, had to be postponed until Aug. 4 as two “real world” vehicle accidents, one very close to the exercise event site, occurred as the event was scheduled to begin.

When the CBRNE event did unfold on Aug. 4, emergency responders faced an exercise scenario where an individual, while driving a vehicle at high speed, lost control at the intersection of Spruce Way and Oak Street in Area A and impacted the base steam plant causing a massive explosion from a ruptured gas main.

The CBRNE component of the exercise came into play when SFS personnel found a package in the vehicle with a white powder spilling from it. A joint Bio-environmental Engineering and Emergency Management response team was summoned to the scene to help determine the nature of the potential threat and develop an appropriate response plan.

Role players, scheduled once again to act as casualties, were unable to participate in the Aug. 4 activities because of the event postponement from the previous day. For future exercises, however, officials invite others on base to add to their ranks.

“The expectation is that the volunteers be able to role play, so aspiring actors and actresses are always encouraged to participate,” Purtle said. “The more they can play up their injuries – the better training for the installation.”

The next installation-wide exercise is scheduled for Oct. 30 through Nov. 3.

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