Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany conducts annual exercise

MCLB-ALBANY — Bomb explosions that collapse a headquarters building on Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany was the scenario practiced in a full-scale, installation-wide exercise at the base today.

The annual exercise took place all day, and was to be activated again tonight and expected to continue Wednesday morning and into the afternoon. Today, the drill started with a bomb blast at 9 a.m., and another blast 10 minutes later.

The scene was set at a barracks building with artificial smoke, staged victims and displaced furniture. The firefighters at MCLB-Albany participated along with the installation’s police officers and outside agencies including Dougherty County EMS, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia Search and Rescue and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

While firefighters went in for rescue, a lockdown was initiated for the first 30 minutes of the drill while police set up a perimeter. Canines were brought out to sniff for additional devices. Firefighters went through the floors while smoke still lingered, going room by room and looking for and assessing victims — pulling them to safety.

Some victims, according to the plan, in the chaos caused friction with public safety officials on the scene, creating an environment that might be consistent with a real emergency.

In addition to testing the base’s resources, it also tests its relationship with agencies outside the fence line who would need to offer assistance — including those in adjacent counties.

“We get the whole community involved,” said MCLB-Albany Fire Chief Phillip Partin. “(The exercise) is so we are ready. You never know what will happen. We do a different scenario every year. We find our weaknesses, and when we find weaknesses, we can go back and correct them.

“The more exercises you have, the better you are when the real thing happens.”

Marcus McAllister, exercise controller evaluator with Regional Exercise Team East at Marine Corps Installations Command, said exercises such as the one launched Tuesday help to find the gaps present in emergency response.

He indicated that it can be particularly effective in situations like the one practiced at MCLB in which agencies that do not normally unify can work side by side to address those gaps.

“We have new people, people who retire,” McAllister said. “(Doing the exercise annually) is an opportunity to give someone a chance in a realistic as possible scenario (to practice life-saving skills).”