At a high-security facility such as Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Ga.,, home to a fleet of ballistic missile submarines, safety and security drills are frequently conducted to test and evaluate the response.
The base also participates in national drills such as one currently being conducted nationwide called Exercise Solid Curtain-Citadel Shield.
The national drill began Monday with bases across the nation facing different scenarios. Sailors and civilian workers on base knew a drill was planned, but they weren’t told the scenarios they would face.
Role players with false identifications tried to get onto Kings Bay earlier in the week when the drill began, but guards at the gates were not fooled, said Scott Bassett, a base public affairs officer.
Security forces believed they were being prodded after receiving a bomb threat that forced investigators with bomb-sniffing dogs to respond.
Thursday’s mock drill unfolded when base security reported a truck traveling at a high speed, crashed through barricades meant to slow traffic and detonated a load of explosives, causing expensive damage and casualties.
Firefighters and other emergency officials arrived at the scene within minutes, where they saw an overturned car, another damaged vehicle with injured passengers inside, and smoke pouring out the back of a truck. A team rushed to the truck to extinguish the flames, while others ran to the vehicles with trapped passengers inside.
Firefighters used the “jaws of life” to cut open the vehicles, remove the mannequins and treat the injuries before putting them on stretchers for medical transport.
During the drill Thursday morning, the scenario got even more complicated when emergency officials received a report of an active shooter at Trident Training Facility.
A team of observers evaluated the response of emergency and security officials. They looked for how fast the scene was secured, if the medical response was correct and how quickly communications with other bases and other agencies such as the FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Services were established.
Ken Prichett, a training officer at Kings Bay, said some wrinkles were thrown into the scenario to make the drill challenging.
“We like to train like we fight,” he said.
The national drill will continue through the end of next week, with Kings Bay remaining on heightened security. Then, the evaluation process will begin.
“There’s an enormous amount of data from every department, every division,” Bassett said.
While security drills are conducted frequently at Kings Bay, Bassett said they are necessary because of the constant turnover of sailors and to ensure everyone knows how to respond during an emergency.
“We always have new people as part of the team,” he said. “I feel like we’re prepared to respond, but we always look for ways to do it quicker, safer, more efficiently.”
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