STUTTGART, Germany -- It was a normal busy Tuesday morning at the Stuttgart Army Airfield Mail Distribution Node. People were carrying boxes, sorting letters and checking addresses before sending the mail to various military installations in the greater Stuttgart area.
Suddenly, an employee shouted: "We have a suspicious package! Everybody has to leave the building." Within seconds, some 17 people moved out of the post office and rescue personnel were notified.
This scenario was part of the Stallion Shake, U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart's annual force protection exercise that took place recently.
"The directive for each Garrison is to perform one full-scale exercise annually," said Ron Kirkemo, USAG Stuttgart emergency manager. "Besides, we have to perform smaller installation-specific exercises quarterly to test our effectiveness."
The force protection exercise is mandated by Army Regulation and officially directed by Installation Management Command-Europe, which sent representatives to Stuttgart to observe and help coordinate this year's exercise.
Besides rescue personnel, many other garrison directorates participated in Stallion Shake, both on site and within the Emergency Operation Center.
"This year, all garrison directorates were part of the exercise, including about 125 people on site and Soldiers from Echo Company, 52nd Aviation Regiment," Kirkemo said.
The training objectives focused on testing a scenario with hazardous material, decontamination procedures, life safety, law enforcement integration, equipment capabilities and requirements. A biological threat was staged: a package and an envelope were "contaminated" with a white, powdery substance representing Anthrax (a harmful, biological agent).
Minutes after the incident was reported, the first responders (fire rescue personnel and military police) arrived to ensure the proper evacuation of the Post Office and to secure the area and the building. Fire rescue personnel arrived with a tank pumper, a weapons of mass destruction container and a combination rescue pumper.
The WMD container housed shower units for personnel to use after coming into contact with the contaminated box, as well as equipment to register all potentially contaminated items.
"This year's exercise was focused on two parts," said Karl DAfAPrsam, USAG Stuttgart fire chief and senior incident commander on site. "Part one was to secure the area and to get an overview of the scenario. The affected people had to be isolated from the damage zone.
"In the second phase, the decontamination container was set up to decontaminate all individuals that were in the building and got in contact with the hazardous material."
While the firefighters were working on the decontamination procedures, Director of Emergency Services Maj. George Self, along with his staff, started setting up the "Big Blue."
"Technically, the Big Blue is the Emergency Operation Center on site for the Military Police," said Master Sgt. Gary Cryder, DES provost sergeant. "Here, we establish the operation to coordinate and disseminate information to and from internal directorates as well as host nation agencies."
Practice exercises including Stallion Shake help first responders (and personnel such as the Post Office staff) to be prepared in the event of a real emergency, Self said.
"We have to exercise in order to make an observation on our performances and then focus on specific areas that need improvement," he added.
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