Photo By Tech. Sgt. Esteban Esquivel | Members of the 36th Medical Group and 36th Civil Engineering Squadron lay a mannequin...... read more read more
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Team Andersen conducted an antiterrorism/force protection exercise dubbed Sling Stone 21-1 on November 5, 2020, on Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, with its Joint Region Marianas partners to strengthen the base’s ability to respond to security threats.
The purpose of the exercise is to ensure members of the 36th Wing are prepared to respond to real-world disturbances and actively use preventative measures to deter any potential security threats.
“Sling Stone gives Team Andersen, Naval Base Guam, and other JRM installations a valuable opportunity to all work together when faced with a common threat scenario,” said Lt. Col. Richard Marby, Inspector General, 36th Wing. “In order to be successful, the various JRM installations must communicate to share intelligence and threat assessments, and must coordinate a unified response.”
Members of the installation’s Wing Inspection Team held a series of simulated events throughout the day with the objective of seeing how first responders and individual units identify and respond to spontaneous high-risk scenarios.
Among the simulated events are scenarios testing the base’s response times to security breaches, internal and external attacks, and managing high-traffic areas in times of emergency. During the event, Airmen of 36th Security Forces Squadron played integral roles testing their ability to properly prevent hostile individuals from breaching security.
“Training and evaluating these skills are extremely valuable to make sure we are ready for anything, anytime, anywhere,” said Maj Thomas Kellams, commander of the 36th SFS. “Security Forces train year round and we validate that training by conducting exercises at the squadron through wing-level exercises.”
Simulated events like these are not only intended to evaluate our capabilities, but to also identify effective practices which extend beyond written instructions and could be shared and implemented across the installation.
In addition to testing first responders, WIT members test Team Andersen’s responses to security threats in their workplaces.
“Units constantly train on their particular niche, but large exercises like Sling Stone are great opportunities to practice and evaluate teamwork between units,” said Marby. “Security forces, civil engineering fire department, emergency management, and medical group personnel all work together to protect the base, while the crisis action team, emergency operations center, and command post serve vital command and control functions that ensure a swift, coordinated, and effective response.”
Installation health protection conditions are enforced during the exercise, ensuring scenarios and responses are developed around condition guidance.
“As changes occur,” said Kellams, “we incorporate different procedures to overcome those changes and conduct exercises as a way to validate and assess our capabilities.”
“The American people rely on us to perform our mission,” said Marby. “This exercise proves to our allies and adversaries that Team Andersen remains ready to defend the base and perform our mission, even in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
At the conclusion of the exercise, members of the WIT team and inspector general office gathered together as part of the threat working group to make recommendations to the 36th Wing commander on actions to take in order to improve the base’s response processes in the future.
| Date Taken: | 11.05.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 11.06.2020 01:01 |
| Story ID: | 382469 |
| Location: | GU |
| Web Views: | 53 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Exercise Sling Stone 21-1, by SSgt Nicholas Crisp, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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