Photo By Chief Petty Officer Patrick Gordon | NAS PATUXENT RIVER, Maryland (Feb. 6, 2019) – A Sailor attached to NAS Patuxent...... read more read more
NAS Patuxent River is joining naval installations around the National Capital Region in preparing for the Citadel Shield-Solid Curtain (CS-SC), the Navy’s annual anti-terrorism and force protection exercise scheduled to take place Feb. 3-14.
Conducted by Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command and Commander, Navy Installations Command, the two-part exercise uses realistic drills and scenarios to ensure Navy security forces maintain a high level of readiness to respond to changing and dynamic threats. It also provides an opportunity for testing and evaluating the emergency training and pre-planned response procedures already in place.
Citadel Shield, the first part of the exercise, focuses on installation-level training and all scenarios occur entirely within Pax River’s gates.
“Multiple drills will take place at Pax on Feb. 4, 5 and 6,” said Marcus Dismuke, NAS Payuxent River N3/operations officer. “They might include an integrated response involving various agencies such as security, the fire department, public works, emergency management and FFSC, which will allow us to evaluate how well we communicate and work with each other during an emergency situation, and whether we have the correct procedures in place to handle such a situation.”
Whenever an exercise is underway, Pax personnel might experience gate delays or closures, temporary changes in traffic or parking patterns, and see an increase in force protection condition from the usual Bravo to Charlie or beyond.
“We won’t be doing anything around high traffic times,” Dismuke noted. “We do our best to minimize disruption and avoid significant backup. We’ll make sure we get people onto base first before we go in to our drills.”
Aside from hearing frequent sirens and seeing additional emergency vehicles on the road responding to drills in progress, personnel can also expect to receive multiple emergency response notifications.
“They’ll receive alerts via AtHoc and see emails and text messages ahead of time,” Dismuke said. “It’s nothing we don’t already do; it’s just that they’ll see them multiple times, back-to-back, over a number of days.”
The Solid Curtain portion, occurring in the second week of the exercise, is a national-level exercise centered on command, control and communications between all echelons Navy-wide where everything that happens at an installation affects every other installation, even if only in a minor way.
For instance, if leadership – U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), U.S. Fleet Forces Command, or CNIC – sees trends or incidents in one or more areas they feel may also impact a different area, they can selectively put installations, regions, or the entire NORTHCOM area of responsibility into a heightened force protection condition. This would again prompt further delays, closures and emergency notifications at Pax River.
In order to be kept informed about what’s happening at the installation throughout the CS-SC exercise, personnel should enroll in AtHoc, the recommended method for receiving information at any time of the year.
AtHoc messages provide emergency notifications that may affect the installation – such as base delays or closings – and anyone can sign up to receive them, including government contractors. AtHoc messages can be sent to home and cell phones, a TTY/TDD phone, pager, fax, plus work and personal emails. For more information about AtHoc, visit www.cnic.navy.mil/regions/ndw/about/waan.html.
Notifications will also be posted on the NAS Facebook page at www.facebook.com/NASPaxRiver, and the Pax River Twitter feed @NASPaxRiverPAO.
While every effort is made to limit inconveniences, personnel are advised to expect delays during the exercise. The ultimate purpose of the CS-SC is to ensure the protection of all who work and live aboard Pax River, and real-world events like the shootings at Naval Air Station Pensacola and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard only highlight the importance of such training.
For more information on NAS Patuxen River, visit www.cnic.navy.mil/patuxent
| Date Taken: | 01.28.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 01.28.2020 14:04 |
| Story ID: | 360684 |
| Location: | PATUXENT RIVER, MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 55 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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