Active-shooter exercise enhances base readiness

Published Sept. 24, 2012
By Airman 1st Class Ryan Throneberry
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Public Affairs

JOINT BASE-MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst personnel participated in an active-shooter exercise Sept. 20 to evaluate the installation's emergency response procedures here.

An active shooter is, by DOD definition, one or more individuals who participate in a random or systematic shooting spree, demonstrating his or her intent and means to continuously cause serious physical injury or death to others. His or her overriding objective appears to be that of mass murder, rather than some other type of criminal conduct such as robbery.

The exercise tested the joint base's ability to respond to an active-shooter event, similar to the attack at Fort Hood, Texas, when a gunman opened fire Nov. 5, 2009.

The date and time of the exercise was released prior to the event in order to prevent unnecessary panic or fear in or around base communities.

"The exercise was truly a joint effort because of the participation of mission partners throughout the joint base," said Bob Scherer, 87th Air Base Wing Plans and Evaluations Office exercise evaluation team chief. "The Federal Corrections Institute, the FBI and all five services came together for this exercise."

The exercise kicked off at approximately 10 a.m. with a simulated 911 call from a role player acting as bystander who witnessed a shooting in the Dix Elementary school parking lot. The role-player perpetrator ran into the facility after opening fire in the parking lot.

Emergency responders received a second call nearly simultaneously from another bystander, saying a community member heard gunfire within the Fleet and Family Readiness Center on Lakehurst.

Emergency responders received a third call only 15 minutes later from another bystander saying a gunman was holding Lt. Col. Steve Cabosky, 87th Force Support Squadron commander, hostage.

The exercise scenario set up a simulated series of events during which three Air Force personnel coordinated a three-pronged attack in order to create base-wide panic.
The 87th Security Forces Squadron member's practiced their response capabilities as each call came in.

87th SFS defenders neutralized the first two attackers while Cabosky's assailant surrendered.

The exercise wrapped up with all teams working together to ensure the situation was under control and all steps were completed.

Joint-base agencies responded immediately to the reported incident and increased threat conditions and force protection levels.

"Lockdown procedures were implemented, some better than others, but our exercise evaluation team noticed a significant amount of participation and cooperation throughout the joint base," said Mike Stefani, 87th ABW Plans and Programs chief. "This is even more important because on a joint base, a comprehensive practice makes for a collective response."

The entire joint-base populace participated, reacted and cooperated with instructions as first responders did their jobs.

"This was truly a joint effort of all our first responders," said Scherer. "Security forces teams eliminated the threat and secured the scene; the 87th Medical Group personnel simulated lifesaving care to the "moulaged" role-playing wounded; and the Joint Base Fire Department members provided command and control at the scene as the overall incident commander."

The joint-base utilized the AtHoc system for the first time during this exercise. The system disseminated critical information about the unfolding event to service members across the joint-base.

"AtHoc is a fantastic program," said. Maj. Nick Woodrow, 87th Command Post chief. "It allows us to instantaneously alert the installation with up-to-date information on a developing crisis."

AtHoc is a network-centric emergency mass notification system which also provides an aspect of personnel accountability. Personnel accountability comprises a list of which personnel were notified, when they were notified and whether or not those personnel acknowledged the notification.

"Other services on base still need to be manually entered into our database in order to receive the notifications," said Woodrow. "That is something we are diligently working to remedy. It's important to test the system's capabilities now so if we were ever to actually use it, we will be ready."

All Department of Defense installations practice training for similar real-world situations. Stefani said no other event may be as important as the active shooter exercise in regard to saving lives.

"There are many examples of active-shooter incidents on and off DOD installations," said Stefani. "Planning and preparing for such an event in advance makes a huge difference in our base's preparedness level."

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