Hosting an air show requires a vast amount of preparation. Behind the scenes, emergency crews stand the watch, ready to respond in the event of an aircraft mishap. For many years, Naval Air Station Oceana and the City of Virginia Beach have joined forces to protect the lives of over 200,000 air show fans annually.
Due to COVID-19, Naval Air Station Oceana made the decision to host this year’s air show “virtually.” Though hundreds of thousands of guests will be watching from their homes, rather than the flight line, the installation continues to partner with the local community to ensure safety for performers and base personnel.
Naval Air Station Oceana and the City of Virginia Beach conducted a joint emergency training exercise, Aug. 9, allowing Navy personnel and Virginia Beach first-responders to react to a simulated incident onboard the installation. The goal of the exercise was to enhance the readiness of emergency response teams and maintain interoperability between Navy leadership and the City of Virginia Beach.
“Before we put on an air show, we like to hone our firefighting skills in a coordinated manner with the City of Virginia Beach,” said Capt. John Hewitt, Naval Air Station Oceana commanding officer. “This year, we isolated our emergency training to scenarios we could reasonably expect for our ‘virtual’ air show.”
“Our exercise consisted of two parts, the first was a tabletop exercise involving leadership and officials from the City of Virginia Beach, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic Fire & Emergency and NAS Oceana Emergency & Security Forces,” explained Kenneth Snyder, Naval Air Station Oceana district fire chief. “The second, was a live scenario of an aircraft catching fire inside a NAS Oceana hangar.”
Rather than train for potential emergencies involving crowds, this training primarily focused on responding to an aircraft fire. Virginia Beach Fire Rescue & Emergency Medical Services worked alongside crews from Navy Region Mid-Atlantic Fire & Emergency Services to extinguish the blaze in an aircraft fire trainer and locate simulated casualties in a dark, smoky aircraft hangar.
“The scenario was very dynamic and allowed both our Navy and City of Virginia Beach first responders the ability to work together on a large-scale, stressful event in a safe and controlled environment. By working with our municipal neighbors, all can benefit from the other’s capabilities when facing an overwhelming incident or event,” said Snyder.
All of these agencies come together to provide a single cohesive fire and emergency services capability that protects our airshow performers, spectators, and workers which over the course of an average airshow is several hundred thousand people.
However, emergency training isn’t the only coordinated effort involving the Navy and local community.
“NAS Oceana has a long history of partnering with the City of Virginia Beach in a variety of circumstances with many different city agencies across a wide of disciplines,” said Hewitt. “This exercise was simply another opportunity for us to reinforce those relationships.”
Hewitt said a partnership such as this is important for the sake of the local residents.
“We have mutual-aid responses all of the time with Virginia Beach Fire Department, and in order to be able to respond in this capacity, we have to train together,” said Hewitt. “The City of Virginia Beach is our home. If I were a civilian looking in at the base, as a taxpayer, I would reasonably expect that leadership from the City and the base are incorporating their assets in training for a variety of complex scenarios where they will be forced to work together.”
Hewitt said the decision to host the air show virtually was made in part to give back to the community and help get everyone through difficult times.
“There have been so many events in and around the local area that have been cancelled, and we wanted to find a creative way to bring this experience to the people that have come to know and love the NAS Oceana Air Show,” said Hewitt. “While we can’t open the gates and flight line to our guests, this is probably the next best thing we could do to put a smile on the faces of people across the United States.”
The 2020 NAS Oceana Virtual Air Show will be held on Saturday, Sept. 19 from noon to 4 p.m. It can be viewed online at https://www.facebook.com/events/1849904701816801/. For updated information on NAS Oceana and the 2020 NAS Oceana Virtual Air Show, visit www.facebook.com/NavalAirStationOceana.
| Date Taken: | 09.14.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 09.29.2020 07:42 |
| Story ID: | 379095 |
| Location: | VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 46 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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