Base prepares for major exercise

  • Published
  • By Sonic Johnson
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  On Tuesday, Oct. 5 and Wednesday Oct. 6, Columbus Air Force Base will execute a large-scale exercise that will impact most areas of the base. As a courtesy, wing leaders wanted to inform the base population of the exercise and are asking for patience and vigilance during the exercise period.
During this exercise, a gunman will simulate the random shooting of over a dozen people on base and is designed to measure how the base reacts, responds and recover during a shooting.

"This exercise will further prepare the base to handle a random shooting with a large number of casualties," said Lt. Col. Art Dunn, Chief, Exercise Evaluation Team for Columbus AFB.

At the start of the exercise, the entire base will come to a halt as Airmen, civilians, visitors, contractors and even aircrews will stop work and seek shelter. Through various communication methods including At HOC, email and the Giant Voice speakers, members will be directed to implement Lockdown procedures. Critical to the success of the exercise is the whole base's participation, except for one or two exemptions.

Also during the initial phase, all of the base gates will be closed for a lengthy period sometime between 9 a.m. and noon on Tuesday, Oct. 5. There will be no routine medical appointments available during the exercise. Personnel and Chapel functions will only be available for emergencies.

This large scale exercise allows Columbus AFB to interact with most local and regional emergency responders and find the areas needing improvement.

"This exercise will allow us to evaluate many of our letters of Agreements and Memorandums of Understanding with local supporting agencies," Colonel Dunn said. "It will be advantageous to all of us to measure our capabilities and improve our practices during crisis events."

According to Col. George Ross, 14th FTW Vice Commander, "this Headquarters Air Education and Training Command directed exercise includes senior AETC personnel who will monitor our response and recovery to this simulated shooting incident."

Next weeks' Silver Wings newspaper will have more detailed information regarding personal actions during a shooting crisis.

The advance exercise notice and advice is clear from base officials: if you can, please do not conduct routine business on Columbus AFB on Oct. 5 and 6.