Great Lakes Exercise Brings Together Local, State and Federal First Responders

Photo By John Sheppard | GREAT LAKES, Il. (Sept. 21, 2021) Naval Station Great Lakes and local authorities work together during an active shooter drill as part of Exercise Reliant 21. Exercise Reliant 21 is a full-scale, multi-agency exercise, providing participants with an opportunity to assess capabilities, plans, policies, and procedures. (U.S. Navy photo by John Sheppard)  

GREAT LAKES, IL, UNITED STATES

09.22.2021

Story by John Sheppard 

Naval Station Great Lakes

Naval Station Great Lakes sponsored a full-scale exercise, Reliant Great Lakes 2021, on Sept. 21 on board the installation. This exercise provided Great Lakes first responders and responders from local, state and federal agencies with an opportunity to assess capabilities, plans, policies, and procedures. The exercise focused on decision-making, coordination, and integration with other jurisdictions and organizations during an active-threat scenario.
“Exercises afford us the opportunity to gather lessons learned and to prepare for events that we hope are never realized,” said Capt. Jason Williamson, Naval Station Great Lakes Commanding Officer. “Integration with local partners is key to preparedness.”
“We utilize the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Process to test the plans in place for 32 core capabilities that are standard throughout the country,” said Michael Belmonte, Great Lakes Fire & Emergency Services Fire Inspector/Investigator. “This ensures that the installation is meeting the National Preparedness Framework and complying with the National Incident Management System (NIMS) Mandate. It also helps build relationships with partnering agencies that would assist the installation during an event such as this.” Belmonte is a certified NIMS instructor.
“We researched several active threat situations and built it from there to make it realistic,” said Terry Lanners, Great Lakes Naval Security Force Lead Training Officer.
The scenario had first responders engage in two active-shooter events. The first event was at a schoolhouse and the second was in a barracks. During the schoolhouse event, role players placed simulated improvised explosive devices at the scene. While the first responders began to address the situation, a second active shooter role player began an attack at the barracks. The role player there took a simulated hostage and began a standoff with responders. The two events caused multiple simulated casualties.
More than 400 Sailors participated in the exercise as role players. “They were pretty much all junior Sailors. A couple of the role players were petty officers attached to our auxiliary security force,” said Lanners. “We had a brief the day before the exercise, found out some of them may have had some high school acting background to fill in our more critical roles. The rest were given a baseline direction of what to do.”
The tactical care casualty combat team from the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center provided realistic looking mock injuries, also known as “moulage.” “They put in a significant amount of prep time for this exercise as well, creating the inject cards that they needed to do for the injuries,” said Lanners, referring to the cards that describe what injuries each of the role players is acting out.
A tremendous amount of planning went into the exercise. “We needed to get back to doing realistic exercises,” said Mark Wegge, Great Lakes Installation Training Officer.
“Planning for the exercise actually started almost a year ago but ramped up in early summer,” said Belmonte. “I know Terry Lanners has over 400 hours into the exercise and that I have over 300 hours into it. I am sure Mark (Wegge) has almost equal amounts.”
“That doesn’t include the ten, fifteen minute phone conversations between participants and all the other coordination,” said Lanners.
Navy players in the exercise included Great Lakes Naval Security Force, Great Lakes Fire & Emergency Services, the Navy Region Mid-Atlantic Regional Dispatch Center and Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
Coordination also included partners outside the Navy fence line. “We had everything from our federal agency partners, to state, to local in all areas of expertise from emergency management, to law enforcement, to fire and emergency services,” said Lanners.
Outside agencies involved in the exercise included ATF, Bureau County Emergency Management, College of Lake County Police, Cook County Department of Emergency Management and Regional Security, FBI, Grayslake Police, Gurnee EMS, Highland Park Police, IESMA, Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System (ILEAS), Illinois State Police SWAT, Lake Bluff Fire Department, Lake Bluff Police Department, Lake County Coroner, Lake Forest EMS, Lake Forest Police, Libertyville EMS, Mutual Aid Box Alarm System, Mundelein Police SWAT, North Chicago EMS, North Chicago Police, Northwest Medicine, NW IL - IMAT (NIST), Vernon Hills Police, Waukegan Fire Department Bomb Squad, Waukegan Police, Waukegan Rescue Task Force and Zion Police.
“Naval Station Great Lakes would like to thank all the agencies who participated,” said Wegge. “Without your participation, cooperation and dedication this valuable exercise would not have been possible.”
“Additionally, I really think (Great Lakes USO Director Jeremiah) Avers and the USO needs to be called out for the exemplary job they did supporting this event with food and beverage for all the outside responders,” said Lanners.

• Date Taken: 09.22.2021
• Date Posted: 09.22.2021 15:12
• Story ID: 405798
• Location: GREAT LAKES, IL, US