Photo By Shelby West | The Radiological Emergency Planning Division (Code 105.6) team writes all drill...... read more read more
Emergency drills conducted at Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) provide a valuable training activity that simulates a real event as closely as possible to evaluate the shipyard’s ability to respond to an emergency using a highly stressful environment that models actual response conditions.
“Depending on the type of drill we are exercising, up to approximately 150 qualified individuals may respond,” said Radiological Emergency Planning Division (Code 105.6) Health Physicist Rebecca Spencer. “However, it’s just not those who are qualified responders that are drilling, but also shipyard employees, Sailors and contractors conducting their daily jobs will likely participate as well.”
The type of scenario dictates who writes the drill package. For Radiological Emergency Response Organization (RERO) drills, the Radiological Emergency Planning Division (Code 105.6) writes the drill packages. The Emergency Management Planning Division (Code 1130) is responsible for drill packages pertaining to major fires. Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC) NNSY’s Installation Emergency Management Department develops drill packages for active shooters, gate runners, suspicious packages, threatening messages, destructive weather, shipyard power outages and many other drill scenarios.
Code 1130’s Emergency Management Specialist Jacquelyn Singletary explained what exactly a drill package is. “A drill package is a document comprised of outlines, in detail, for the drill scenario: expected responses by responders, scripts for the role players, safety precautions, data to be given by drill controllers, the termination points as well as alternate outcomes, and responder objectives.”
Installation Emergency Management Officer, Nicole Roten, added, “A drill package helps the training team executing the scenario to move smoothly from one critical event to the next, annotates expected actions when certain events occur or are presented to responders, and gives evaluators a standard against which to compare observations. When done right, a well-designed drill scenario encourages critical thinking for responders to solve the problem at hand, especially when an unexpected or anomalous condition is exposed.”
From start to finish, it takes anywhere from two to six individuals to write the drill packages, which can take anywhere from three weeks to four months to complete. It all depends on what type of scenario is being drilled at any given time and what the goal is for any particular drill.
There are many challenges that come with writing a drill package. The drill package writers need to understand how all the pieces fit together for a cohesive and comprehensive response.
“Drill package creation and execution requires coordination of a large number of personnel, of which can be very difficult,” said Spencer. “It can be especially difficult to coordinate with evaluators in package creation, considering their senior positions within the shipyard, which means high levels of responsibility and full schedules.”
Singletary added, “Another challenge is the vessel used during the drill. Some spaces have limited access due to the work being conducted in there at the time of the drill as well as ensuring only those authorized personnel enter the space to perform any tasks pertaining to the exercise.”
Once the drill has been executed and completed, the drill package is kept for three years. This helps as a tool to create future drills taking the lessons learned and building upon them to turn the areas that need improvement into strengths.
If you are interested in becoming a responder or role playing for RERO drills, contact Rebecca Spencer at Rebecca.e.spencer.civ@us.navy.mil. For major fires, contact Brent Kotcamp at brent.k.kotcamp.civ@us.navy.mil. For drills and actual events for the installation, contact Nicole Roten at alexis.n.roten.civ@us.navy.mil or John Callahan at john.e.callahan8.civ@us.navy.mil.
| Date Taken: | 02.01.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 02.01.2024 11:50 |
| Story ID: | 462925 |
| Location: | VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 640 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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