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TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — In emergency response scenarios, minutes and seconds matter.
Almost one year after wildfires raged across Northern California, scorching thousands of structures as well as acres of land, the importance of saving time when time is of the essence is well-known to residents of the Bay Area, including Travis Air Force Base, California.
Agencies such as Travis’ 60th Civil Engineer Squadron, prepare for a variety of emergency scenarios through training and exercises throughout the year.
One is Urban Shield, a multifaceted preparedness exercise, which took place Sept. 6-10 at multiple locations in the Bay. The exercise brought together components of law enforcement, explosive ordnance disposal, maritime units and various emergency response teams, such as the fire departments in Vacaville, California, and Mountain View, California, the California Highway Patrol Bomb Squad, the EOD flight at Beale Air Force Base, California, Sacramento Police Department Bomb Squad and more. Urban Shield also included international teams from South Korea, China and the Netherlands.
For Glen Munn, 60th CES assistant chief of health and safety, whose hazardous material team combined Travis firefighters and bio-environmental team members, boosting readiness for all of the agencies involved provides invaluable knowledge. Knowing which assets other agencies bring or can bring in response to a crisis saves time on the scene, said Munn.
One example Munn gave was the opportunity to work with his squadron’s EOD flight, which also took part in Urban Shield.
“Even though we don’t work together all the time, I know what they bring to the table,” he said. “If I go off base on a HAZMAT (call) where something just doesn’t look right and I don’t want to stick a human body (in that situation) to check out this package or whatever the case may be, I know I can make a call and they’re going to bring a robot out with some detection equipment downrange so I can take a good look and see what’s going on.”
In Urban Shield, those partnerships were strengthened as Travis EOD and HAZMAT crews participated in a simulated chemical agent attack involving malathion, a pesticide which mimics a nerve agent. The exercise took place on a ferry boat docked at Mare Island outside of Vallejo, California.
The EOD flight participated in the exercise while the HAZMAT crew acted as evaluators, scoring participants on how they handled the scenarios, judging 11 teams during a 33-hour period in six different scenarios.
“It presented crews with a scenario that very well could face first responders not just here in the Bay Area, but (across) the United States,” said Steve Ellingson, acting captain of the Vacaville fire department. “The ferry boat presented crews with a unique scene as some crews may have never even set foot on one before or even thought of (it) as a target.”
Staff Sgt. Benjamin Peck, 60th CES NCO in charge of EOD training, competed in multiple challenges, including scenarios featuring weapons of mass destruction, improvised explosive devices and a hostage scenario. Peck emphasized that working with the other agencies is beneficial should an emergency occur
“(It’s about) having coordination so that if something were to happen, that communication piece has already been alleviated through training,” said Peck. “We’re trying to preserve life and property. … Time is an issue, especially when you’ve got a fire going on.”
Teams at Urban Shield were evaluated and scored by their peers as to how they responded to a scenario based on technique, procedures, safety, problem solving, timeliness and mission success. Travis’ EOD flight earned the highest score, winning the competition for the first time since it began participating in 2010. This marked the first time an Air Force unit has won, according to Master Sgt. William White, 60th CES EOD flight chief.
Peck along with Staff Sgt. Scott McDonough, Staff Sgt. Larry Sanchez and Senior Airman Justin Coleman participated for the EOD flight team.
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