News

Force protection exercise tests responses, communications

  • Published
  • By Sandra Pishner
  • 446th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
MCCHORD FIELD, Wash. --  For the 446th Airlift Wing executive officer, the day started off as just another normal day. Then the unthinkable happened; a gunman stormed into the command section taking six hostages and demanding to see Col. Bruce Bowers, the 446th AW commander. And so the scenario went Dec. 12 for the first Joint Base Lewis-McChord force protection exercise on McChord Field.

The hostage exercise in Reserve wing's headquarters culminated a day of emergency situation exercises that included a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device at Hangar 9, and a gunman in Bldg. 100 where the 62nd Airlift Wing headquarters is located.

The JBLM Garrison was the lead on this exercise," said Lt. Col. Ray Luevanos, 446th Mission Support Group deputy commander. "It's been in the works for about a year. There were three scenarios and each one was assigned to each of the specific units assigned to McChord Field.

"The first scenario was 62nd Airlift Wing driven. It was a vehicle-borne IED parked in front of Hangar 9. The 62nd was primarily responsible for responding to that one and it was to test their capabilities. They have the flightline security responsibilities," explained Luevanos.

"The second scenario, directed at the 627th Air Base Group, was an active shooter in Building 100. They had an individual start off on the first floor and then work his way up to the third floor in search of the wing commander and when he didn't find the wing commander, he worked his way back down to the first floor shooting people along the way, said Luevanos, who is also an exercise evaluation team member.

The exercise, according to Lt. Col. David Jeske, 446th AW chief of combat readiness, had four Air Force objectives established by Col. Wyn Elder, 62nd AW commander, and our commander, Colonel Bowers.

"Those four objectives were to test and evaluate our ability to implement additional Force Protection Condition Measures (going from FPCON Alpha to FPCON Delta), test and evaluate our ability to implement the lockdown procedures required by an active shooter scenario, test and evaluate the ability of the joint base and McChord Field to get notified of a force protection incident, and then notify base personnel to take protective actions. And finally, test and evaluate the ability of the McChord Field Crisis Action Team to respond to a force protection situation," said Jeske.

"The overarching goal of the exercise however, was to see if we could protect our base population and discover how to better protect them," said Jeske. "There is nothing more important than ensuring the safety and well being of our Airmen, our civilians and their families."

One purpose of exercises such as this is to test the security response and to test communications base-wide. Exercise planners were look for things like whether the command structure initiates lock down procedures and if they do, how far along the checklist do they have their units go, what force protection conditions do they activate.

"First and foremost, we wanted to see communications. Were units responding to the correct FPCONS in an appropriate timeline? Were they completing their checklists, and were they communicating those back up the chain? We wanted to see if CAT (crisis action team) instructions filtered all the way down to the bottom. We also wanted to test communications to our individual Airmen," said Luevanos.

"We tested communications via AtHoc. We wanted to see how that worked on an installation-wide basis. From early indications, that was very successful. Our Airmen should have received almost instantaneous communication concerning the threat, force protection levels and such through e-mails, automated telephone calls, and text messages. he said."

The third scenario of the day involved the 446th AW's headquarters building, where a disgruntled Airman took six hostages in his attempt to find the wing commander.

"I knew what my role was ahead of time and when it went down, I was given an input as to what to do," explained Lt. Col. Barb Henson, 446th AW executive officer who was taken hostage in the exercise.

"They asked us all to role play. We were in character for most of the time. We had six of us as hostages and we all had a different part to play because we had competing interests as we tried to convince the hostage taker to release us," said Henson.

"I think it was a well planned out exercise," she said. "I think it certainly helped me realize how important it is to pay attention to details about the hostage taker and what he was saying because that information would be important to give to the police."

It was a great exercise also, according to Luevanos, in that there was a lot of coordination between the Air Force and the Army and Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

"We got to see how our measures meshed with each other and also got practice in how to train with each other on a local level," he said.

That local level training included JBLM's community partners in Pierce County and Thurston County.