Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Jeremy Starr | 180718-N-BK435-0855 DEVESELU, Romania (July 18, 2018) Naval support Facility Deveselu...... read more read more
DEVESELU, Romania (NNS) -- Sailors from Naval Support Facility Deveselu and Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 8 from Rota, Spain and service members from 99th Military Base conducted the first Shield18 exercise, July 18.
SHIELDEX 18 is the first force protection, emergency operation exercise conducted on Romanian 99th Military Base and NSF Deveselu that encompassed assets from Commander, Navy installations Command within Europe, Africa and Southwest Asia and Romanian military entities throughout Southern Romania. The drill provided an opportunity for the two militaries to practice critical contingency procedures and capture lessons learned.
“This was the first time this year the Romanian 99th and the U.S., have worked together on an exercise of this magnitude,” said Capt. Charlos Washington, commanding officer of NSF Deveselu. “Working together increases our interoperability and strengthens our partnership, making it almost seamless when it comes to security, emergencies, or day-to-day operations.”
The drill started with two vehicles exploding on both the Romanian 99th Military Base and NSF Deveselu causing two casualties on U.S. and Romanian service members. Base security and medical emergency rushed to the scenes. Serviciul Român de Informații from Slatina sent in their explosive ordnance team diffuse a bomb on an abandoned third vehicle. EODMU 8, stationed in Naval Station Rota in Spain, observed the operation and worked with their Romanian counterparts to understand the capabilities they can use in a real life scenario.
Medevac Baza 90, an aerial medical evacuation team from the nation’s capital Bucharest, flew in to provide medical equipment, a bomb disposal robot and evacuated an injured U.S. Sailor. NSF Deveselu Fire and Emergencies worked alongside the local fire department from Caracal to provide medical aid and put out warehouse fires from the explosions.
“Being the first exercise of this kind it went very well and everything went as we expected. The goal of this exercise was to train all the institutions that usually take part in this kind of situation,” said Romanian Col. Razvan Bratulescu, base commander of 99th Military Base. “We have to train like this. We have to make sure that are base is ready in case something goes wrong and that we would have to face such a situation head on and manage.”
Following the exercise, the base members and supporting commands and team members held an initial “hot wash” assessment of the drill, discuss lessons learned and asked questions regarding best practices and alternative courses of action.
Bratulescu said SHIELDEX will turn into a bi-annual event where it grows larger with each event incorporating more services from Romanian civil and military services.
NSF Deveselu is the first Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Facility placed into operation, providing support to NATO's overall ballistic missile defense (BMD) system. NSF Deveselu’s service members and DOD employees serve as the security and logistic supply line for its primary tenant command, the Aegis Ashore Missile Defense System. The Aegis command consists of a fire-control radar deckhouse and an associated Aegis command, control and communications suite, and housing launch modules that contain SM-3 defense missiles.
For more information on NSF Deveselu please visit https://www.facebook.com/NSFDeveselu/ or https://www.cnic.navy.mil/regions/cnreurafswa/installations/nsf_deveselu.html.
| Date Taken: | 07.18.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 07.19.2018 03:41 |
| Story ID: | 284863 |
| Location: | DEVESELU, RO |
| Web Views: | 171 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, US and Romania Service Members Respond to Base Explosions For SHEILDEX 18, by PO1 Jeremy Starr, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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