HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Military first responders were on the scene Wednesday for a simulated active shooting incident at the Sasa Valley Fuel Farm in Piti.
Three civilians were gunned down before the shooter, who bypassed the gate at the fuel farm, turned her weapon on herself. Security forces from Naval Base Guam arrived just minutes after the shooter was spotted to secure the facility’s staff and sweep the area for any potential secondary gunmen.
Once the area was secured, Joint Region Fire and Emergency Services pulled up to assess the deceased and wounded and tend to any bystanders who could potentially go into shock following the incident.
As fire and security forces got to work, military leadership and training officers were standing close by observing how personnel responded to the incident.
The simulation was part of the larger five-day Exercise Citadel Pacific, an annual training exercise run by the Navy to ensure that naval security forces and other agencies on base are “mission ready” to respond to any security threat, according to Michael Brown, Naval Base Guam training officer.
Based on a shooting incident that occurred at Fort Hood in Texas, Wednesday’s exercise was meant to assess how security forces deal with “shoot, no shoot situations” – a scenario in which responders have to quickly differentiate between bystanders and potential threats, Brown said.
Navy first responders and emergency operations personnel were aware the simulation would take place Wednesday, but they weren’t informed where, when or what sort of threat they would have to respond to, according to Brown. Intelligence was leaked to security personnel in the weeks leading up to the simulation, clues that potentially could help them identify where and when they would need to respond.
Security forces did what they were supposed to do, making good use of the information and stationing patrols nearby so that they could respond as quickly as they did, Brown said.
“Immediately following the drill, well, we do is called a ‘hot wash,’” he said. A “hot wash” is a rundown of what went right and what needs improvement during the response, he said.
“From there, we will gather our lessons learned and then we will basically use those lessons from this exercise to address anything issues that we had for the next exercise,” Brown said.
Wednesday’s active shooter simulation was the fourth drill so far for the over 200 personnel under Senior Chief Travis Wharton, senior enlisted adviser for Naval Base Guam’s Security Department.
“Training is everything for the military, across the board,” Wharton said. “You don’t train, you get stagnant. We have a tendency to fall off and when you actually need to step up and perform, you have to be able to do it. So training can be one of those things. It’s repetitive. Nobody wants to do it. But train like you fight, push forward and you get ready for when the day comes and you actually have to put it to use.”
Wharton said that Citadel Pacific exercises have been productive this year.
“We have high levels of morale, motivation, which is one thing that I look for. Our tactics, techniques and procedures are pretty good so far. (There are) shortfalls that we can improve on, but that’s why we do this,” Wharton said.
A team of Navy Security Forces sweep an area in search of an active shooter during a drill at the Sasa Valley Fuel Farm in Piti on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023.
A Navy Security Forces officer detains a person role-playing as an active shooter during a drill at the Sasa Valley Fuel Farm in Piti on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023.
