Photo By Chief Petty Officer Gretchen Albrecht | Security personnel take a suspect into custody during a child abduction drill at Naval...... read more read more
Story and photos by Mass Communication Special 1st Class (SW/AW) Gretchen Albrecht
BREMERTON, Wash. - Naval Hospital Bremerton (NHB) spent the week conducting anti-terrorism force protection (ATFP) drills and training Feb. 1-12, 2016, as part of the Navy-wide Exercise Solid Curtain-Citadel Shield 2016 (SC-CS16) held on Navy installations across the continental United States.
The annual ATFP exercise was designed to train Navy Security Forces to respond to threats to installations, units, and personnel.
“This is the time every year where we go full force in our training with as realistic scenarios as possible to find points of weakness, allow for a plan of action to be created to ensure our staff and patients are more secure and ready for an event, as well as ensuring the hospital remains a harder target,” said Master at Arms 1st Class Micah Cannon, Security Department leading petty officer. “We strive for the best patient care possible but sometimes drills can interrupt services for a short time. I believe by doing what we can to keep our staff and patients safe via drills in turn promotes stronger patient care in the event of a real world attack.”
NHB’s drills included training in handling a child abduction, bomb threat, violent person and a table top discussion overview on an active shooter situation.
Brian Bodaly, NHB’s anti-terrorism officer, coordinated the active shooter table top with the Commanding Officer and directorate heads in attendance to allow open dialog on being prepared for a real world event stating, “Effective response requires pre planning and this table top exercise allows all of us to share ideas and be prepared and ready for any event.”
According to Bodaly, a military treatment facility is a unique environment for security to train staff in due to the nature of the hospitals mission in patient care and services and the daily flow of beneficiaries in and out the doors.
“Hospitals are usually tagged as the place for triage to be set and victims to be brought to. But what happens when your hospital is targeted?” added Cannon. “We need to ensure we are prepared and are able to take care of our patients. That can be from having an emergency food kit in the event of an extended lockdown or having a plan of action should a woman be in active labor. Babies don’t stop being born because we are in a lockdown. We are doing what we can to ensure we are prepared.”
SC-CS16 ending with a bomb threat drill conducted immediately following all-hands quarters on the quarterdeck.
“We conducted our bomb threat drill on the quarterdeck as it is a realistic place for a threat to occur as well as a great opportunity to see the reaction of staff members,” said Senior Chief Master at Arms Heather Waite, Security Department leading chief petty officer. “No two incidents are the same so it is paramount we drill to reveal our strengths as well as weaknesses so we are ready and prepared to repel an attack. This was a positive training and learning experience for our staff and responders.
| Date Taken: | 02.12.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 02.16.2016 18:30 |
| Story ID: | 188991 |
| Location: | BREMERTON , WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 130 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Security drills held at Naval Hospital Bremerton, by Douglas Stutz, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
