Photo By Sgt. Daniel Jean-Paul | The Special Reaction Team sweeps through a building Sept. 23 during an active shooter...... read more read more
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CAMP COURTNEY, Japan - Marines participated in emergency response training with an active shooter scenario Sept. 23 during Exercise Constant Vigilance 2015 aboard Camp Courtney.
Constant Vigilance is an annual training exercise held across Marine Corps installations on Okinawa to ensure emergency personnel across all bases are proficient in responding to potential security risks, terrorist attacks and other emergency situations.
The scenarios of this exercise are part of a required annual training initiative practiced throughout the Department of Defense which partners base emergency services with external emergency responders to help foster interoperability and prepare all personnel involved, according to Gene Warfield, the Camp Courtney anti-terrorism officer.
The training allowed respective occupational field professionals and supervisors to observe and evaluate incident response and medical care provided by camp emergency services as well as medical personnel.
“This exercise works through many different scenarios in which the first responders have no prior notice as to what the situation entails,” said Warfield, a Tucson, Arizona, native. “This way, they are getting real-world application as well as a chance to show where their strengths and weaknesses lie. It’s about communication and learning where the holes are and where to patch those up.”
During the first stage of the scenario, Marines with the Provost Marshal’s Office on Camp Courtney received a call to an active shooter in a barracks on base. PMO Marines arrived on the scene and searched the building before finding the room where the shooter barricaded himself on the third floor.
As PMO Marines closed in on the shooter, medical teams arrived and assisted in evacuating simulated casualties from the building and providing medical care as needed.
“This scenario also reassures the confidence in the Marines about the medical personnel’s abilities,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam Lefevre, a workplace supervisor and field corpsman at the battalion aid station with Headquarters Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force. “Not only did the medical care professionals have to respond to the emergency call, but they also had to care for the wounded within every echelon of care all the way up to the hospital.”
PMO Marines posted security at the barricade as the shooter shouted his demands and declared that he had taken a hostage. Marines rehearsed hostage negotiation and recovery techniques and called the Special Reaction Team to breach the barricade.
SRT responds to trouble calls such as active shooters with hostages in the same way the civilian weapons and tactics teams, according to Staff Sgt. Brandon Price, the section chief of SRT with the Provost Marshal’s Office with Headquarters and Support Battalion.
The SRT Marines swept through the building and cleared each floor, room by room, ensuring that no other threats were present before arriving at the shooter’s barricade. The team then breached the barricade, detained the shooter and removed the hostage from the room.
As the medical personnel confirmed no further on-scene medical attention was required and security personnel eliminated all possible threats, the teams departed from the scene.
“Today’s training, like any real-world training, was an eye-opener for areas of improvement as well as a good chance to instill a sense of confidence in all the different teams’ capabilities,” said Lefevre. “The training shows that while we are always hoping and striving for the best, we are also prepared for anything bad that may happen along the way.”
| Date Taken: | 09.23.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 10.05.2015 00:14 |
| Story ID: | 178057 |
| Location: | CAMP COURTNEY, OKINAWA, JP |
| Hometown: | DURHAM, NC, US |
| Hometown: | INVERNESS, FL, US |
| Hometown: | TUCSON, AZ, US |
| Web Views: | 87 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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