Subscribe
GREAT LAKES, Ill. -- An enraged gunman took the public affairs officer hostage so the PAO could write out the gunman’s unhinged manifesto while holed up in a room at the National Museum of the American Sailor—but not really. This scenario was part of Exercise Citadel Shield at Naval Station Great Lakes on Feb. 7.
Exercise Citadel Shield-Solid Curtain 2023, taking place Feb. 6-17, is an annual two-week force protection and anti-terrorism exercise conducted by Commander, Navy Installations Command and Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command on all Navy installations in the continental United States.
Exercise Citadel Shield-Solid Curtain 2023 is not in response to any specific threat, but is a regularly scheduled exercise.
“We have 25,000 people living and working on our installation and it’s our job to make sure they’re safe. We want them to be able to come to work in a safe and secure environment and exercises help us make sure we can do that,” said Capt. Jason Williamson, NSGL Commanding Officer.
These exercises use realistic scenarios to ensure U.S. Navy security forces maintain a high level of readiness to respond to changing and dynamic threats.
“Because so many people live on and around the installation, we make security a year-round priority,” said Lt. (j.g.) Michael Smith, NSGL security officer. “It’s important to run these exercises because we need to make sure we know how to properly respond to any incident, such as an active shooter, on Naval Station Great Lakes. We exercise to make sure our skills are honed for this type of situation.”
Measures have been taken to minimize disruptions within local communities and to normal base operations, but there may be times when the exercise results in increased traffic around Great Lakes or delays in base access. Area residents may also see or hear security activities associated with the exercise. Advanced coordination has taken place with local law enforcement and first responders to prevent confusion.
“Our partnership with city, county and state emergency management assets is important for disaster and mass casualty preparedness efforts,” said Terry Lanners, Installation Training Officer. “We thank everyone who participated in this large, complex exercise.”
Agencies taking part in the exercise included NSGL Law Enforcement and Security, NSGL Fire and Emergency Services, NSGL Fleet and Family Support Center, NSGL Emergency Management Office, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic Operations Center and Dispatch Center, Capt. James A. Lovell Federal Healthcare Center, the National Museum of the American Sailor, Libertyville (Ill.) Fire Department, Newport (Ill.) Rescue Task Force, Buffalo Grove (Ill.) Rescue Task Force, Lake Forest (Ill.) Fire Department, Waukegan (Ill.) Fire Department, Northwestern Medicine, NCIS, FBI, Lake County (Ill.) Sheriff’s Office, North Chicago (Ill.) Police Department, Lake County (Ill.) Incident Management Assistance Team, Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System (ILEAS), and Northwest Central (Ill.) Dispatch.
“This annual mass casualty exercise provides us with numerous opportunities to enable current and future efforts in the care and treatment of patients during a mass casualty incident,” said William Ramsey, NSGL emergency management officer.
“We had a great exercise on Tuesday,” said Capt. Mark Zematis, NSGL executive officer. “We’re taking away lessons learned so we can improve how we respond to these types of incidents.”
The exercises are designed to enhance the readiness of Navy first responders and ensure seamless interoperability among Navy commands, other services and agency partners. Citadel Shield is the field training exercise led by CNIC, and Solid Curtain is a command post exercise co-led by USFFC and CNIC.
For updates during the exercise, visit the base’s Facebook account at www.facebook.com/NavalStationGreatLakes, and the base’s Twitter account at twitter.com/navstaglakes.
| Date Taken: | 02.10.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 02.10.2023 13:09 |
| Story ID: | 438281 |
| Location: | GREAT LAKES, ILLINOIS, US |
| Web Views: | 320 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Great Lakes Participates in Exercise Citadel Shield-Solid Curtain 2023, by John Sheppard, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
