Photo By Staff Sgt. Nicholas Swift | U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Nicholas Metz, 100th Civil Engineer Squadron lead...... read more read more
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ROYAL AIR FORCE MILDENHALL, England -- A man dressed in a patchwork mess of an Air Force uniform approaches the RAF Mildenhall post office carrying a box filled with an unknown substance and a malicious intent. An altercation occurs, and a call goes out to the emergency responders on base, “exercise, exercise, exercise…”
This was the scenario presented to the 100th Air Refueling Wing’s emergency responders on Sept. 29, 2021, at the post office on RAF Mildenhall, England.
“These types of exercises are twofold,” said Tech. Sgt. Robert Blackburn, 100th Security Forces Squadron training section chief. “Firstly, the no-notice (exercise) allows us to get the most accurate response times for the first and secondary responders. Secondly, any exercise that we conduct gives us the opportunity to work with our counterparts in real time.”
No-notice emergency response exercises involve recreating a threat to the base, then informing the units involved that an exercise threat is present and gauging their response to said threat. This includes how well emergency responders coordinated their efforts in not only finding the threat, but also discovering what type of threat was present, and how it should be treated.
“We developed this exercise to test our holistic response to suspicious substance threats at and through the post office,” said Tech. Sgt. Charles Deakins, 100th Force Support Squadron postmaster. “By conducting this scenario with no-notice to most of the participants, we were able to more accurately simulate how a real-world situation would unfold”.
In response to this particular threat, Airmen successfully managed to capture the assailant, isolate the area where the package was contained, identify the threat present and treat victims accordingly.
“Of course there are always things to be worked on, but in total, all agencies were competent and proficient in their respective duties,” said Blackburn. “All objectives were met, and all recovery actions outside of the emergency operations center responsibilities were conducted with zero loss to assets”.
While an actual threat such as this one is not likely to occur, the 100th ARW regularly practices response efforts to ensure they are ready in any situation, 24/7. Not giving emergency responders any notice prior to the training occurring allows them to get into the mindset of real world scenarios.
“During this exercise we found unexpected problems that, had this been real, may have resulted in injury or deaths,” said Deakins. “Conducting this exercise has provided us with invaluable lessons that will save lives should the worst happen.”
| Date Taken: | 09.29.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 10.28.2021 05:35 |
| Story ID: | 408184 |
| Location: | GB |
| Web Views: | 39 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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