Naval Support Activity Bethesda trains for suspicious package

Photo By Andrew Damstedt | Master-at-Arms 2nd Class Zane Kentner looks at a map as he assesses the situation during a suspicious package training exercise onboard Naval Support Activity Bethesda during Solid Curtain-Citadel Shield 2016.  

BETHESDA, MD, UNITED STATES

02.10.2016

Story by Andrew Damstedt 

Naval Support Activity Bethesda

BETHESDA, Md. - Reports of a suspicious package came over the scanner, which spurred Naval Support Activity Bethesda’s (NSAB) watch commander to secure and clear an area around the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI).

Master-at-Arms 2nd Class Zane Kentner, watch commander, was patrolling the installation in the watch commander vehicle when he heard the report. That led him to set up an incident command post in his vehicle so he could assess the situation and start sending other patrols to secure a perimeter around AFRRI.

Kentner directed his team through NSAB’s Security protocol in this given scenario, which is to take control of the area and wait for local law enforcement to come and defuse the explosive, said Master-at-Arms 1st Class Jonathan Cales, leading petty officer of NSAB’s Security Training Department.

Two evaluators watched from Kentner’s vehicle, noting how he instructed his team during the drill. This was the first time in several years that NSAB conducted a suspicious package training exercise.

“He did an awesome job; the evaluators that were here … they said MA2 Kentner was ‘impressive,’” Cales said.

The Feb. 10 scenario was one of several drills that NSAB Security went through during the two weeks of Solid Curtain-Citadel Shield 2016, an annual Navy-wide exercise that assesses law enforcement response in several different scenarios. There was an active-shooter drill at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences campus Feb. 4 and other smaller daily drills, such as identifying false credentials.

These drills are good reminders of how to respond in certain situations and after each drill they go over any lessons learned, Cales said.

“A lot of it is stuff we already know, stuff we’ve already learned; it’s just being able to tighten up and get back to those basics and those guidelines that are there,” Cales said.

• Date Taken: 02.10.2016
• Date Posted: 02.12.2016 11:28
• Story ID: 188733
• Location: BETHESDA, MD, US