TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Airmen and first response personnel had their disaster preparedness tested Feb. 17-21 with a tabletop tornado drill and an on-scene active shooter scenario as part of War Wagon exercises at Tinker Air Force Base.
The first exercise focused on response in the event of a tornado hitting the installation and causing major damage across the base. Operations and command personnel are evaluated according to their response and the effectiveness of their command structures as well as how they work together with other organizations, both internal and external to Tinker.
“Tornadoes have a possibility to affect the base as a whole, so training for these events are crucial,” said Capt. Justin Dulworth, assistant chief for training with Tinker Fire and Emergency Services. “We’ve also had a chance to respond out to help Moore on several occasions with the incidents that they’ve had. The way the storms roll through the Midwest, the likelihood of it happening here at Tinker is very good.”
While tornadoes on base do not happen often, they have occurred before and have caused significant damage. In 1948, two tornadoes caused a combined $16 million in damages to the installation, and Tinker has also more recently experienced damage with the 1999, 2003 and 2013 tornadoes.
Severe weather events like tornadoes pose a complex disaster response situation for the installation’s first responders. They’re the ones tasked with ensuring that the installation’s assets remain unharmed while also conducting search and rescues and taking care of those who were injured or displaced in the disaster.
“Honestly, if a major tornado were to come through and knock the power out so we had no communication, we need to ensure that we have that control and communication with our personnel,” said 2nd Lt. Alex Anderejkovics, on-duty flight commander with 72nd Security Forces. “Ultimately, it’s the protection of the installation’s personnel and also making sure the plans on the base are safe and secure as well.”
Severe weather wasn’t the only emergency situation Tinker trained for last month. An active shooter drill was held in the 38th Cyber Engineering Security Group’s headquarters building.
“We’ll do active shooter training with any unit that requests it,” said Scott Lindsey, 72nd Air Base Wing Inspector General inspector.
The exercise included members of the 72nd Air Base Wing Security Forces Squadron responding to an incident that involved an actor carrying out a fake shooting attack on workers inside the building.
Two actors also portrayed victims in the incident, which the Tinker Fire Department responded to. The Incident Commander set up outside the headquarters building as they would in a real-world incident.
Oklahoma County Sheriff Department were also at the exercise to observe how Tinker responds to these types of incidents.
Employees in the headquarters building and SFS weren’t given advanced warning of participation in the incident, providing a good opportunity for unit leaders to assess how the Airmen would react if it were a real-world event.
Throughout the exercise, members of the Wing Inspection Team evaluated everyone’s performance to create a report.
Col. James Trachier, 38th Cyberspace Engineering Installation Group commander, said that people at Tinker can have a false sense of security because they’re on a military installation, and that it’s important to be prepared for situations like this.
“Whether external or internal, we face adversaries and that’s something we have to address and be prepared for,” Trachier said.
The afternoon included the Crisis Action Team coming together and briefing 72nd Air Base Wing Commander Col. Paul Filcek on how the incident unfolded, which he would relay to the local news media. The addition of this media component wrapped up the week of War Wagon exercises in a way that would allow for a realistic media conclusion for the event as well.
The briefing from command staff included information on response times of the first responders to the incident, procedures implemented within the exercise and procedures implemented by Incident Command, the Emergency Operations Center and other participants across the installation and how to improve various components of the exercise.