Base exercise tests vital preparations, responses Published May 15, 2015 By Will Huntington 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs Wright-Patterson Air Force Base -- Wright Patterson Air Force Base was a flurry of activity last week as base personnel were put through their deployment and emergency response paces during this quarter's base-wide exercise. Events started early as the order came down to prepare to send Airmen overseas in a deployment exercise that covered the first three days of the week. Cargo palettes were built, checked, rechecked and marshaled for loading aboard a C-17 aircraft for transport. More than 25 Airmen from a variety of base units, such as the 88th Medical Group, the 88th Force Support Squadron, the 88th Communications Group, and others, packed bags, gas masks and other personal effects and boarded a bus destined for the base's personnel deployment facility. There, they passed through the deployment line and made their way to a meeting room where they received a succession of briefings about the deployment and what they would face at the deployed location. Early in the week, the installation was also subjected to an Active Shooter exercise where, in addition to traditional Active Shooter notification methods, the base's siren was sounded with the Attack Warning signal as a way to alert those out and away from buildings that an active shooter was present. At that time the base went into lockdown. Wright-Patt Wing Inspection Team (WIT) members had fanned out across both areas A and B to survey individuals after the event on how well the siren worked to alert them of danger. As an indicator of how the remainder of the week would play out, a severe thunderstorm watch conveyed through an exercise message let the base populace know that storm clouds were moving in. That thunderstorm watch was followed up by a thunderstorm warning and then, later Wednesday afternoon, everyone was directed to take immediate shelter as the exercise scenario indicated that a tornado had been spotted on radar moving toward Wright-Patt from southern Montgomery County. Soon after, the all-clear message was given and the base populace was able to resume normal activity. Thursday morning activities seemed like a repeat of Wednesday as once again exercise weather announcements were issued in advance of dangerous weather and culminated in another yet tornado warning. As Thursday's weather announcements grew more and more grim, what most on base didn't know was how "real" things were about to get. Exercise heats up with mass casualty, partnership with community Wright-Patterson AFB, in partnership with nearly 100 response organizations in nine surrounding counties, became the scene of a mass casualty exercise on the fourth day of the week-long exercise with nearly 50 tornado victims. The volunteer-victim Airmen, sporting life-like moulage make up, screamed and writhed in pain as emergency responders arrived at the location of a tornado strike at the base's Rod and Gun Club. Some of the victims, without physical injuries, exhibited the symptoms of hysteria that would accompany a catastrophic event. Faced with so many victims with a wide variety of injuries, base emergency response officials issued the call for mutual aid to Dayton-area fire and emergency medical services to help with the injured. Ambulances from communities like Fairborn, Huber Heights, Dayton and many others, streamed into the area as first responders prepared the victims for transport to 18 hospitals throughout the region. Besides assisting the fire and medical responders, 88th Security Forces Squadron members also controlled the flow of traffic to and from the disaster scene to ensure quick and safe passage for all response vehicles. Dayton area news media outlets had been alerted of the exercise ahead of time and news media representatives were on hand to cover the event for their news broadcasts later that day. As activities tapered off at the Rod and Gun Club, things were building up at the aviation fuel tank farm at the other end of area A on Skeel Avenue, not far from the runway. As part of the exercise, tornado damage to one of the giant fuel tanks caused a fuel spill of more than 700,000 gallons of jet fuel which soon overtopped a containment dike. In the scenario, much of the jet fuel flowed into a nearby creek. A previously-arranged release of a harmless dye into the creek simulated the contamination and added realism to the scene. 88th SFS responders established a cordon around the area while others worked to contain the fuel spread. Behind the scenes, the emergency operations center marshaled those forces necessary to assist in the event and began to pave the way for the cleanup that would follow. Early Friday morning, exercise officials ended the exercise as real-world circumstances took precedence. Even with the exercise over, however, WIT members still had the task of gathering their collected data for the week and preparing the reports that would give inspection officials a clear picture of how well things went during this quarter's base-wide exercise.