Marines, civilians take part in evacuation training

Photo By Lance Cpl. Kelcey Seymour | MARINE CORPS AIR STATION FUTENMA, OKINAWA, Japan – An evacuation control center tent is set up during a noncombatant evacuation operations training exercise Aug. 7 at the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma terminal in Okinawa, Japan. Marines from 3rd Transport Support Battalion conducted a two-day NEO training to master the employment of the neo tracking system. The Marine Corps uses the NEO tracking system to keep track of all people and pets that are evacuated in the event of an emergency. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Kelcey Seymour)  

OKINAWA, JAPAN

08.08.2018

Story by Lance Cpl. Kelcey Seymour 

Marine Corps Installations Pacific

CAMP FOSTER, OKINAWA, Japan – Marines from 3rd Transport Support Battalion preformed a two-day, noncombatant evacuation operations training Aug. 6-7 on Kadena Air Base and Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.

During the training, 3rd TSB set up an evacuation control center inside terminals at the air station for volunteers to check-in before and after their fight.

“We are working in conjunction with MCAS Iwakuni on this exercise,” said 1st Lt. Amanda Henegar, alert contingency Marine Air-Ground Task Force officer in charge with 3rd TSB, Combat Logistics Regiment 3. “The civilian volunteers are checked into the neo-tracking system in MCAS Iwakuni and then flown here to Kadena where we check them into the NTS we have set up in our evacuation control center. This is how we keep track of everyone who is being evacuated.”

The training was conducted to simulate a realistic, small-scale evacuation. The volunteers were registered and issued an identification wrist band. The Marines operating the NTS were able to get the volunteers checked into the system effectively with little issue. The American Red Cross was also on site, just like they would be in a real evacuation, to check the volunteers into their Safe-and-Sound program and provide refreshments after landing into Kadena Air Base.

“This training is important because it helps us master the employment of the NTS and develop an analog of processing capably in the event the NTS does not function,” said Henegar.

Before returning to MCAS Iwakuni the next day, they were screened by MCAS Futenma security and logged back into the NTS.

“I think the hardest part of future practices will be integrating the state department,” said Capt. Jessica Davis, landing support company commander with 3rd TSB, CLR-3. “In the event of a real evacuation, our control center will have to link up with their system. Today we had 31 volunteers and were able to process everyone very quickly, but we only had the Marines and Red Cross set up instead of all the entities. I think next time we will have the state department involved too so that we can have a better idea of how we would all work together.”

• Date Taken: 08.08.2018
• Date Posted: 08.08.2018 23:34
• Story ID: 287916
• Location: OKINAWA, JP