FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii - Members of the Special Reaction Team (SRT), 39th Military Police Detachment, 728th MP Battalion, 8th MP Brigade, 8th Theater Sustainment Command, participated in an active shooter training exercise, held June 4, at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Honolulu District, here.
In the scenario, a disgruntled person was pushed past his breaking point, so he decided to take the lives of others. The shooter took hostages while barricading himself and the hostages in an unknown room inside a building.
A call was made and first responders arrived on scene, secured the location and became the eyes and ears for other emergency responders.
In order for emergency responders to collaborate with each other, a temporary base of operations called an "incident command" was set up nearby.
Capt. Noel Whitten, officer in charge of incident command, had a multitude of tasks he was required to track and said it was a great learning experience for him.
"You have to rely on your different subordinates because you have a lot of outside agencies and subject matter experts coming in," said Whitten. "It definitely takes teamwork."
As Whitten worked with the other emergency responders, he said the ultimate goal was to negotiate a peaceful solution with the shooter, though sometimes things just don't work out that way.
"When we are called in, you know the situation has become nonnegotiable," said 1st Lt. Daniel Johnson, SRT leader. "We are the last resort."
While exercise scenarios may be similar, despite locations, Johnson said that it was the experience working with the emergency responders that his team needed in order to gain that real-world experience.
"We train like this all the time," said Johnson. "It's working with the other moving pieces that helps makes this real."
After arriving on scene and gathering all important information from incident command, the SRT members made a plan to neutralize the threat. Once the plan was in place, the team moved out to its objective.
The team took up position and stacked outside a door of the building where the known shooter was waiting inside. Moving swiftly through the small building, the team cleared cubicle after cubicle until they spotted the shooter.
The team moved into place and entered the room, and without hesitating, quickly neutralized the threat.
The training exercise was over and considered a success.
"It went well," said Sgt. Jeffrey Sadker, SRT member. "We went in and did our job."
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