MCLB-Albany conducts full-scale emergency drills

MCLB-ALBANY — Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany conducted full-scale emergency exercises Tuesday, including “bomb threat” and “suspicious package” scenarios. These drills serve to familiarize base employees at all levels with protocol and help them prepare for a variety of emergencies.

Steven Dancer, the installation’s emergency manager, further explained the drills’ importance and how the surrounding community came together for the mock scenarios.

“We’re not an island out here; we’re not alone,” he said. “We rely on the local community when it comes to a large incident to support us while we’re going through it.”

Dancer said the Georgia Search and Rescue Task Force 2, Albany Fire Department, Dougherty County EMS, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital and Coroner Michael Fowler all helped with the scenarios. According to Dancer, the drills went well.

“This is a whole community effort, what we’re doing right now,” he said.

Asked how important having everyone on the base on the same page is to the drills’ success, Dancer answered that all hands need to be on deck.

“If something happens, no matter where you are, you’re gonna be on your own to include every employee here when it initially happens,” he said. “Doing exercises like this helps bring awareness to (employees) that they have to be able to execute their emergency actions or immediate actions to whatever threat is there, whether it’s running away from an active shooter, hiding from an active shooter, or, in this case, evacuating the building. It saves lives by them knowing what they have to do.”

The full-scale exercises have proven their value in times of need.

“When the tornadoes hit last year, it was due to our training that we were able to stand up so quickly, and from there be able to get ourselves back onto our feet,” Dancer said. “If it wasn’t for the training, it would’ve been disastrous.”

Dancer explained that the exercises also help employees understand how security breaches could potentially affect national security.

“Everyone who is safe is then a force multiplier to make sure the mission keeps going to support the warfighter who’s doing a mission that’s protecting the entire country,” he said. “So if we didn’t do this training and we lost half a dozen employees, maybe someone who’s specifically trained in one skillset, that could impact the entire mission of the installation and even the security of the United States overall to some degree. We’ve got to be able to do what we’ve been required to do, and we’re going to support (active-combat Marines).”