Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Ryan Sheldon | A Honolulu firefighter prepares the hazardous material equipment he plans to use. Kai...... read more read more
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HONOLULU – The morning coffee is ready, but there is no one around. Chairs are knocked over throughout a conference room at Honolulu Harbor’s Pier 19 where the banner reads “Pacific Drug Interdiction and Enforcement Conference.”
It is the scene of a terrorist attack where simulated blister agents that will read positive on detection equipment, but it wasn’t real. This was a part of the Kai Malu O Hawaii 2012 training exercise.
The intent of the exercise is to test first responders and Civil Support Teams on their reactions to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive incidents.
KOH is a joint operation between federal, state and local agencies along with CSTs from Hawaii, California, Alaska, Washington state, Utah, New Mexico and Guam, that helps the involved agencies react to potential terrorist threats.
An initial response by Honolulu Harbor Police, the Fire Department and then a CST team, was called in to assist.
Not far from the mayhem of the conference room, Ed Peterson, KOH coordinator, worked out of the Tactical Operating Center for the 4th annual maritime exercise to coordinate the scenarios for the CSTs and the other agencies. An event like this doesn’t happen overnight.
To make the event as realistic as possible, copious amounts of chemicals, biological materials and laboratory glassware as well as coordinating with personnel from different agencies. This was only a small part of the extensive preparation that began for the Pier 19 exercise two months ago.
“We arrived on island on the 10th of this month,” said Peterson, “We began to set up the venues for emergency responders to react to.”
Peterson said the goal of the exercise is to help agencies meet their mission criterion, facilitate their combined efforts and test their skills with the most diverse and grueling exercises created.
“The goals of this event were based off of the training objectives from each participating agency,” said Peterson. “Each team or agency gave us numerous objectives they wanted to meet.”
Peterson and his team used those objectives to bring multiple agencies together in just one exercise. Each entity focused on different parts of the scripted event.
“The support and cooperation from local, state and federal entities in the exercise made this mission a huge success,” said Peterson. “Bringing together all of the agencies proved vital to the overall KOH mission.”
The exercise at Pier 19 was only the beginning of a mission on a larger scale that comprises the entire KOH exercise.
“It was a good start to bring most of the players together in a unified command post,” he said.
“Now they have a means of managing other incidents occurring [during the KOH exercise] around the island, throughout the day. I anticipate the current participants will establish better communications and will be well-prepared for any other emergency.”
| Date Taken: | 04.24.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 04.27.2012 20:58 |
| Story ID: | 87504 |
| Location: | HONOLULU, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 94 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Multiple CSTs participate in annual maritime exercise, by SFC Ryan Sheldon, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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