FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (April 14, 2016) -- The Fort Leavenworth Garrison tested its emergency response procedures to a terrorist situation during the post's full-scale exercise April 13.
Fort Leavenworth is required to do an annual exercise on the most likely hazards and threats to the installation. Last year, the scenario involved a train hitting a bus and causing mass casualties. This year, the exercise tested the installation's ability to respond to an improvised explosive device and active shooter scenario.
Col. Andrew Shoffner, Garrison commander, said the exercise validates the post's procedures and systems used to respond to a real-world event and aids in creating a trained and ready organization that is prepared to respond to any crisis. The exercise also provides an opportunity to collaborate with local and federal outside agencies like local police, fire departments, emergency medical services, FBI, Red Cross and local hospitals in Leavenworth, Shoffner said.
"As you know, preparing for and responding to an emergency is a team sport," Shoffner said. "At the end of this exercise not only will these agencies be trained and ready to respond to an actual event, but our mutual support agreements with our off-post partners will also be updated."
The notional scenario kicked off at about 9 a.m. when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device was detonated at Sherman Gate, overturning another vehicle and setting the attacker's car on fire. Shortly after this happened, another attacker used the unoccupied lane to enter post on a motorcycle and proceeded to the Lewis and Clark Center. The terrorist entered the Lewis and Clark Center and opened fire, creating an active shooter scenario. The terrorist then detonated a backpack explosive device in Eisenhower Auditorium at approximately 9:06 a.m., causing 30-50 casualties.
Fort Leavenworth first responders arrived at the Sherman Gate incident first. Police assessed the situation, provided site security, evacuation and access control. A military working dog and handler from the 67th Military Police Detachment (Military Working Dog) checked for secondary devices. After the scene was declared safe, fire department personnel assessed the situation, extinguished the car fire, made contact with victims in the overturned car, stayed with them and requested mutual aid from Leavenworth City Fire Department, which then assisted with extraction of the patients.
At the Lewis and Clark Center, police cleared the building, and a military working dog and handler checked for secondary devices. Once police made the area safe, Fort Leavenworth Fire Department started triaging patients and moving them to the casualty collections points outside on scene, dividing them based on injury status and prioritizing transportation to area hospitals. Leavenworth County EMS helped facilitate and tag casualties and used vans to transport notional casualties to St. Luke's Cushing and St. John hospitals in Leavenworth.
On-site incident command was made up of Directorate of Emergency Services, EMS, FBI and U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command personnel. Information and instructions were relayed from incident command to emergency crews, staff on site and Garrison staff in the Emergency Operations Center, Joint Information Center and the Emergency Family Assistance Center.
Janice Downey, director of Army Community Service, is the EFAC officer and is responsible for maintaining the line of communication between the EOC and the EFAC and general population. The EFAC team is made up of representatives from around post and the Red Cross. The EFAC handle referrals of individuals for emergency relief supplies, donation management, collecting and protecting personnel and family information, and personnel location.
Edgar Guerra, assistant fire chief of training, said that in a real-world incident like the exercise, firefighters must set priorities.
"Scene safety is priority one," Guerra said. "We realize it's a terrorist incident, so we've got to be very careful that there isn't secondary devices or that the scene is still alive and there may be other shooters or other terrorists, so that's priority one ... as they make their way in, and size up the scene inside and see if they prioritize the patients correctly to get them out of here as quickly as possible. It's quantity, not quality when you are dealing with this many patients. There's no way we can handle each patient alone."
External evaluators from Installation Management Command were on post to review the post's standard operating procedures and plans during and after the exercise, which will help the Garrison fine-tune its procedures.
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