Base Exercise tests AED usage, FPCON changes, active shooter response

  • Published
  • By Will Huntington
  • 88th Air Base Wing
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  Activities at the base resumed their normal tempo following 2016's first quarterly base-wide exercise Feb. 1 - 4, but Wing Inspection Team members were still busy poring over data collected from the previous week's activities.

The exercise events ranged in scope from changes in Force Protection Condition, also known as FPCON, to suspicious packages, to active shooter response, to usage of an automatic external defibrillator during a cardiac emergency.

The week started quietly for most with a few organizations putting their members through their paces in proper response procedures with an AED. AED exercises are important to help determine the level of familiarization that workers have with the devices and their locations within their facilities--a familiarization that could potentially be lifesaving.

Hints of trouble to come for the general base populace filtered in to installation authorities in the form of exercise messages from intelligence sources warning of possible terrorist activities. Each successive exercise message provided more details concerning an increasingly valid threat to the base.

On Tuesday afternoon, members the Wright-Patt Threat Working Group met to discuss options to effectively confront this threat and mitigate any potential harm to the installation, its people and its mission using appropriate FPCON measures. At the close of the meeting, it was determined that the base should implement FPCON Charlie upon resumption of duty hours the next day.

"Our 88th Security Forces Squadron anti-terrorism team coordinated building the FPCON exercise with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and 21st Intelligence Squadron," Carmen Riches, 88 Air Base Wing Chief of Exercises and Inspections, said. "The result was a well-orchestrated evaluation of elevating WPAFB to higher FPCONs methodically, giving leadership time to work through actions they would need to accomplish should the need arise. The Threat Working Group did a stellar job of working through the threats and making on-target decisions."

In response to the raised exercise FPCON levels, personnel responsible for implementing the higher measures consulted checklists and took actions to meet each line item. Complicating matters for the Air Force Institute of Technology staff and students, an exercise-related unattended package was left in the open and observed by WIT members to gauge if members responded correctly, and in a timely manner, upon discovering it.

With the FPCON changes behind them, on Thursday a new challenge was thrust upon the base populace. Using the base-wide public address system, known as Giant Voice, the new alarm signal of "Lockdown. Lockdown. Lockdown." was broadcast across Wright-Patt. The Giant Voice announcement, along with other electronic notification means, alerted personnel that an active shooter incident was in progress and that the appropriate response actions should be employed immediately.

Across the base, doors were slammed shut, furniture was converted into impromptu barricades, locks were engaged, lights were extinguished and all evidence of occupancy was eliminated. At virtually every building on base, WIT Members scrutinized all of these responses to validate training and note any shortfalls. Timely and accurate responses could save lives in the event of a real-world shooter.

Riches said that the active shooter exercise reinforced how critical it is to ensure each and every unit talks through having an active shooter event in their workplace

"So many times the old adage of 'not me' is how we think," Riches added. "The next active shooter REALLY COULD be in your workplace, so know what your unit plan says and be prepared to execute it!"

The next base-wide exercise, scheduled for May 2 to 6, is slated to be even larger in scope than February's and will bring outside agencies into the mix.

"The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Defense Logistics Agency are coming to train and exercise during our May exercise," Riches said.  "We'll be having our annual weather exercise with mass casualties, search and recovery and relocation of units.  We'll also be assessing terrorist threats and events occurring from those.  It will definitely be one of the busier exercises we conduct annually."