Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Zhiwei Tan | 170606-N-LG762-066 ATLANTIC OCEAN (June 7, 2017) Sailors aboard the amphibious...... read more read more
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Sailors aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1) trained diligently for an upcoming Force Protection Exercises (FPEX) on June 7 and 8 while undergoing sea trials in the Atlantic Ocean. Wasp departed BAE Systems Norfolk on June 6 after a nearly six-month planned incremental maintenance availability.
“The purpose of these exercises is to test our command's ability to respond to any Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection (ATFP) situation within our area of responsibility,” said Wasp’s Chief Master at Arms (CMAA), Chief Master at Arms Mary Morrison, who facilitated the training. “These [participants] were selected due to their watchstanding experience, ATFP knowledge, and the qualifications that they currently possess. They are some of the foundation stones that ensure we have the ability to detect, deter, and mitigate existing threats against our command.”
Along with exercising the selected Wasp Sailors on foundational knowledge like handcuffing techniques, the use of force continuum, and proper personnel and vehicle searches, the participants were also trained in tactical team movements and tactical withdrawal. The training culminated with the Sailors demonstrating their knowledge of the command’s pre-planned responses during drill exercise walk-throughs.
According to Morrison, force protection is important due to the fact that regardless of the number of measures put in place to protect Sailors and ships, it comes down to the knowledge, training, and instinct of a given individual on watch that can save lives and prevent casualties.
“This person could be a Sailor who graduated from boot camp six months ago, reported to [a] command, and just graduated from Security Reaction Force - Basic (SRF-B) two weeks ago… and they deny access to an individual attempting to gain entry to the pier [the] ship is moored to,” she said. “Unknowingly, they just reinforced to a terrorist cell probing that Entry Control Point (ECP) that this watch station is not a soft target, and they would be better served looking elsewhere for an easier target.”
Participants of the FPEX training echoed the thought process behind the training, and lauded its impact on their security skill set.
“This is about protecting our team, and our ship, and the Navy while we’re on watch,” said Air Traffic Controller 3rd Class Jesse Castellanos. “Having training like this is good because it solidifies what we learned in SRF-B, and the instructions helped smoothing out our tactical movements with different weapons, while keeping the overall security in mind.”
Wasp’s two-day training evolution served to increase and reinforce the participants’ previous experience, and offered new insights, which in turn increased their confidence levels.
“The absolute best part of Force Protection is the training and level of knowledge a person has attained will dictate their ability to respond to any situation,” said Morrison. “When a person is nervous or
| Date Taken: | 06.08.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.08.2017 15:07 |
| Story ID: | 236889 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 98 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, WASP Prepares for FPEX, by SCPO Andrew McCord, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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