(Tribune News Service) — Wright-Patterson Air Force Base personnel are planning to perform an “active shooter” training exercise next Wednesday, and the base is spreading the word now.
Off-base police are being asked not to respond to the training event. Instead, Wright-Patterson security, fire and medical personnel will respond.
Base officials area also reminding those on and around the base not to call 911 during the exercise.
“This is an exercise, a training event,” Garth Freund, 88th Air Base Wing exercise planner, said in a release on the base web site Friday. “We don’t want off-base police or fire to respond to the base.”
The large Air Force base will go into “full lockdown” in response to an active-shooter scenario, the release said.
In August 2018, an “active shooter” false alarm 911 call at the base brought local police forces to the installation.
In a search after the call to base security, a security team member shot a locked door during a room-by-room sweep of the base medical center.
Col. Tom Sherman, commander of the 88th Air Base Wing at the time, said a year later that he was implementing a review board’s recommendations to prevent similar misunderstandings in the future.
The active-shooter exercise in the Kittyhawk portion of the base’s Area A at building 1235 will start at 9 a.m. Wednesday, the base said in Friday’s notice.
“Everyone on the installation should take immediate action, and treat the mock scenario as a real-world occurrence,” the base said in the release.
Those in the immediate area of the “active shooter” in the exercise should follow the “run, hide and, as a last resort, fight” response model, Freund said.
Meanwhile, personnel and residents of both areas A and B should go into lockdown mode or find a place of concealment and remain until an all-clear signal is given.
The installation command center will issue notifications via “giant voice” public address system and other communication modes that the entire installation is being locked down.
The 88th Air Base Wing is one of the largest air base wings in the Air Force with more than 5,000 military, civilian and contractor employees. The organization acts as landlord to the sprawling Air Force Base.
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(U.S. Air Force)
