Photo By Julie Ziegenhorn | Members of NAS Whiting Field’s Navy Security Force participated in a recent exercise...... read more read more
By Ensign Michaela White, NAS Whiting Field Public Affairs Office
MILTON, Fla. – Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC) recently named Naval Air Station (NAS) Whiting Field the recipient of the 2019 Navy Security Force (NSF) of the Year Award for the small installation category. Naval Activity Support Naples was the recipient for the large installation category.
The award recognizes installations that successfully completed the NSF shore training and certification cycle, demonstrated safety and proficiency in all assessed areas and achieved the highest scores during a Final Evaluation Problem, an installation security exercise that tests the security force response and readiness.
“This award is the culmination of a tremendous amount of effort by this team. It is the greatest honor, I think, as a security officer that I could ever be a part of a team to have earned. It identifies that we are the best of the best,” said Lt. Cmdr. Mike Lombardozzi, the Installation Security Officer and the Police Director at NAS Whiting Field, where he has been since December 2017. “It solidifies and validates the efforts of all of these people in this department and how hard they have worked and the pride and professionalism that they showed throughout this entire process.”
The evaluation for this award consisted of three phases: The Command Assessment of Review and Training (CART), the Regional Assessment visit (RASS) and a Final Evaluation Problem (FEP).
For the CART portion, CNIC and Fleet Forces Command (FFC) send out a team to the installations and observe the NSF’s standard operating procedures (SOP), pre-planned responses (PPR) and post orders, as well as antiterrorism and physical security plans. The teams observe and evaluate the security and safety drills at an installation to establish a baseline where a numerical score is given.
For the RASS, Navy Region Southeast, based at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Fla., sent another evaluation team midway through the evaluation cycle to assess the progress from the CART feedback. The RASS results identify how prepared an installation is ahead of the FEP.
“The base did very well at CART,” said Lombardozzi, “The installation had the highest RASS score in the entire region at that point. At FEP, we really crushed it.”
NAS Whiting Field participated in the assessment phase as follows: CART in April 2018, followed by the RASS in May 2019, and the FEP in October 2019.
Capt. Paul Bowdich, commanding officer, NAS Whiting Field said, “I am extremely proud of our NSF team. They do an outstanding job every day, securing our base and protecting the people who serve here. This CNIC recognition is a testament to their hard work and dedication over the past two years and shows that they are prepared and ready for any situation.”
CNIC is the naval command tasked with overseeing 71 of the Navy’s shore installations worldwide. NAS Whiting Field was selected as the winner in the small base category (less than 500 personnel) from a field of 32 installations.
“Cohesiveness of the unit was unmatched, and the professionalism of our people is unlike that witnessed at other installations,” expressed Lombardozzi when asked how his blended team of both military and civilian employees worked together. “We scored a 92 which was the highest score in the region as well as the highest score in the continental United States. That was pretty awesome.”
The award is a pinnacle recognition for a security department. Lombardozzi thanked the naval security force at NAS Whiting Field for their outstanding dedication and devotion to duty in achieving the recognition, and called his team “the greatest security department in the Navy.”
“It is a true testament to their character. This award is the culmination of a tremendous amount of effort of this team, the greatest honor. Not only did we end up with this accolade, but throughout the process this team from Whiting Field was deployed to several other installations to assist them in their processes, which resulted in those installations also doing well in their assessments. We were able to really help and do a lot of good for the naval security force community, not only here at Whiting Field but across the entire region,” explained Lombardozzi.
| Date Taken: | 04.14.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 04.15.2020 11:46 |
| Story ID: | 367439 |
| Location: | MILTON, FL, US |
| Web Views: | 456 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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