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JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. - Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall emergency personnel participated in an active shooter exercise on the Fort McNair portion of the joint base Sept. 25.
JBM-HH police and fire department team members were joined by military police and Washington Metro Police Department officers to practice their response in the event of an active shooting situation on the joint base.
In the simulated scenario, a man playing a disgruntled contractor entered building 69 on Fort McNair, got into an argument with the staff, then came back with a fake handgun and began to simulate opening fire on fitness center customers.
Emergency personnel also responded to a scenario in which the shooter entered Bldg. 18 and walked through the offices, shooting workers.
The simulation began at 10 a.m., and within minutes, a fleet of police vehicles arrived at the installation, flooding the road outside the buildings.
“I think it was excellent,” said Barbara Virag, Fort McNair installation coordinator, who participated in the exercise. “It made me realize now what I need to do.”
The exercise was recorded with a head-mounted portable camera so that the footage could be examined in briefings after the simulation’s completion. A detailed analysis of the exercise response is ongoing and will provide critical information to joint base officials in measuring its readiness and response to such a crisis.
Malanya Wesley, emergency management specialist with JBM-HH’s Department of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security, said that the objective of the exercise was to test both responders’ and employees’ readiness in real time.
The exercise also tested the coordination and communication of joint base staff, who manned an emergency operations center, a central hub to coordinate information among joint base directorates and support personnel.
“Since we’ve encountered active shooter events in the last year or so, [MDW] wanted to know that the work force actually knows what to do,” Wesley said.
Lt. Col. Macedonio Molina, JBM-HH’s director of emergency services, said the exercise allowed DES to validate its emergency response protocol.
“We all have an active role to respond, and it is critical that we all understand our tasks to prevent loss of life and subdue the perpetrator,” he wrote in an email to the Pentagram after the exercise. “Our greatest benefit to this exercise was being able to work with the Metropolitan Police Department and being able to improve on lessons learned from the Washington Navy Yard shooting and this exercise.”
A smaller-scale exercise was performed on Henderson Hall in July, but the full-scale exercises are typically done once a year, Wesley said. This was the first full-scale exercise performed on Fort McNair, she said.
The exercise came just one week after the one-year anniversary of the Navy Yard shooting, when a Navy contract employee shot and killed 13 people at the Washington Navy Yard.
| Date Taken: | 10.02.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 10.02.2014 10:26 |
| Story ID: | 144017 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 72 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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