Guardian Exercise helps Hunter develop reaction plan

By Jennifer Hartwig, Hunter Army Airfield Public AffairsAugust 4, 2011

Hunter Guardian
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FORT STEWART, Ga. - A suspicious man is seen jumping the fence onto the installation; an aircraft crashes to the ground on Hunter Army Airfield in a fiery blaze; the installation is put on lockdown … it’s all part of a scenario during the Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield Stewart Guardian 2011 Exercise, July 26-27.

The two-day exercise was kicked into high-gear at Hunter at 10:10 a.m., July 26, when a C-130 cargo plane was transporting a unit of redeploying Soldiers went down at a remote location on the installation.

A person reported seeing a trail of smoke heading up to the sky near the crash site and a Civilian worker on Hunter reported seeing a suspicious man wearing a black backpack jumping the fence onto the installation. With these two pieces of information, the installation staff immediately closed the gates at Hunter Army Airfield while law enforcement personnel searched for the man " a potential terrorist who may have shot down the plane.

Piece by piece, information was released to Hunter employees manning the installation operations center: Fifteen were killed in the crash and six others were injured and taken to area hospitals; the Families of the Soldiers were waiting for the unit at Cottrell Field at Fort Stewart for a Welcome Home Ceremony " they were immediately taken to Newman Fitness Center, where they were kept informed of the situation and where Army Chaplains were providing counseling as needed.

The reaction of the Hunter employees to the incidents that was paramount: the Hunter Fire Department extinguished the fire at the crash site and served as the Incident Commander at the Incident Command Post set up at the site; Law enforcement and medical teams were immediately sent to the crash site " now a crime scene " and a triage was set up for casualties. An investigation began into the reason for the crash " initially led by the Hunter Army Airfield Criminal Investigation Division, then taken over by the Savannah office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; all gates at Hunter were closed and an installation-wide manhunt was set in motion looking for the suspicious person.

As the scenario played out, the objective of the force protection exercise was to see how well emergency management plans and procedures were followed.

“The exercise enabled us to determine where our systems and processes need improvement,” said Lt. Col. Ed Kovaleski, Hunter Army Airfield garrison commander. “These exercises help us to ‘see’ ourselves.”

The installation staff worked closely with civilian agencies throughout the exercise, including Chatham County Emergency Management Agency, the Southside Fire and EMS, Memorial University Medical Center and the Savannah office of the FBI. Soldiers also took part, including the 603rd Aviation Support Battalion of the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, who stood up a Quick Reaction Force to augment DES during the emergency.

During the installation lockdown, steps were put in motion to transfer children from the Child Development Centers on post to Tominac Fitness Center.

At approximately 12:30 p.m., law enforcement personnel found the body of the suspicious man with the black backpack, along with the casing from a rocket-propelled grenade. The terrorist shot down the plane, then detonated a suicide bomb.

Though the suspect was found, there was still much work to be done. The investigation into the terrorist attack kicked into high gear and Lt. Col. Kovaleski held a press conference in the garrison headquarters to inform the public of the happenings on the installation. The Directorate of Human resources were tasked with tracking down another copy of the passenger manifesto from the crashed aircraft, in order to account for those on the plane, which had to be done before the Casualty Assistance Office could inform Families.

“The point of [Stewart Guardian 2011] was to be able to exercise how the installation would respond to a mass casualty event,” said Maj. John Stanley, the Stewart Guardian 2011 Exercise Director and Mobilization Officer for Stewart-Hunter. “The biggest piece of the exercise was seeing how the employees handed the consequence management piece " we were able to evaluate our regional emergency response efforts, communications systems, anti-terrorism and force protection measures, consequence management plans, and the level of proficiency of our crisis management staff.”

After the two-day exercise, the staff now has a better idea what they need to improve on to better react to a large-scale emergency; to identify capability gaps and develop a plan of action to overcome those deficiencies.

“When a real-world crisis occurs, it is a come as you are event,” said Lt. Col. Kovaleski. “Stewart Guardian gives us experience so that our Stewart-Hunter team is able to successfully respond in the event of an actual incident.”