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Joint Services conduct CBRNE exercise

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Sean M. Crowe
  • Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Public Affairs
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst service members conducted a chemical-attack response exercise in conjunction with a force-protection condition (FPCON) exercise Oct. 8-10, 2013, here.
All five service branches residing at JB MDL participated in the Air Force-led exercise to prepare for similar, but real, crises.

The service members responded to a simulated chemical attack at the Exchange food court to prove their readiness for a real-life chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosives attack through working with mission partners, utilizing command and control and communicating with the base populace to resolve the crisis.

The exercise began Tuesday, Oct. 8, when the Joint Base Antiterrorism Office suspected a simulated vehicle-borne improvised explosive device to be a threat to the base.

"The exercise serves to validate personnel training and readiness as well as to test plans," said Michael Stefani, 87th Air Base Wing Plans and Programs chief. "It also helps us determine the pitfalls in our plans so we can improve upon them. We validate unit training through our exercise evaluation team."

The Joint Base Antiterrorism Office and security forces members responded to the threat by increasing random antiterrorism measures, including added road barriers, increasing vehicle searches and arming the gate guards more heavily.

"We validated the barrier plan during elevated force protection conditions," said Stefani. "Exercises afford us the opportunity to test our plans to determine what our strengths and weaknesses are. This is one of the goals we hope to accomplish in an exercise."

The force protection condition exercise tested the base personnel's ability to react to a threat and sustain force protection condition. The base populace was kept up to date through various mass communication methods such as email, phone, text message notifications and social media outlets.

The exercise pressed on to the next day, when a new exercise portion arose.

The Joint Base Fire Department, Joint Base Police and 87th Medical Group personnel responded to a 911 call at 8 a.m. reporting multiple people having trouble breathing, watery eyes and runny noses. The Exchange food court was under a simulated chemical attack. Responders cordoned the scene and provided medical attention to people affected.

Police established scene security, while the fire department and medics assisted "downed" personnel. The police then notified base leadership of the situation.

Base leadership activated the emergency operations center upon discovery of the chemical attack. The EOC handles crises through coordinating the response.

Emergency Management personnel who operate the EOC were also in charge of detecting the chemical. They took detection equipment into the affected area, or hot zone, and identified the source of the attack, which was chemical in this case. The EM responders relayed this information to the EOC.

The EOC mass communicated a shelter-in-place order to all base personnel, as they would in a real attack scenario, to protect them from the chemical agent. Every organization across the service branches on base headed to designated locations and sealed themselves off from outside elements.

"The exercise incorporated all five service branches," said Stefani. "Every service contributed to the success by participating."

The EOC then coordinates with the responding organization, the FBI in this case, and briefs them on all information the EOC has gathered. "The EOC is the center for incident commander support to provide him means to mitigate a situation," said Steve Robertson, 87th Civil Engineer Squadron Emergency Management director. "He takes control of the situation and provides decisions until the appropriate agency arrives to take control."

The EOC notified everyone once FBI personnel had assessed the contamination area and deemed it safe to resume operations on base.

The exercise terminated at 3 p.m. after base personnel proved their ability to respond to the chemical attack.

"We identified some issues that need to be addressed," said Bob Scherer, 87th Air Base Wing exercise and evaluations chief from Yardley, Pa. "Everyone worked well together, but we can improve communications. The cooperation of the players was paramount to the success. We are already in the process of improving on our shortcomings. Anytime we can get the responders to work together, we can learn something to make the base safer."