TOPOFF 4: 36th MSG prepared to support Published Oct. 17, 2007 By Senior Airman Angelique Smythe 36th Wing Public Affairs ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam -- Team Andersen quickly postured itself to support the government of Guam's responsive actions to a radiological dispersal device detonation during the Top Officials Exercise Oct. 16 through 19. This exercise was led by federal agencies, therefore, in this scenario the Stafford Act had to be inacted. "This allows us to give military assistance to local authorities to prevent or minimize death, injury and property damage," said 1st Lt. Matthew Burrell, 36th Civil Engineer Squadron readiness and emergency management flight commander, who acted as the Andersen emergency operations center manager. "Our primary role is to aid until things are under control and the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other local authorities come in to provide the support that is needed." Though the government of Guam initially responded to the situation, several squadrons under the 36th Mission Support Group still responded as they would have if this were a real world terrorist attack. Andersen initiated a full recall and went into Force Protection Condition Delta when news of the explosion came in the morning of Oct. 16. Within two hours the 36th Security Forces Squadron had a 100 percent recall. They divided themselves into two 12-hour shifts, donned their full battle rattle, and were fully posted out to protect the air force base in one hour. "We shut down the main gate and posted in key areas to protect the base," said Senior Master Sgt. Ray Johnson, 36th SFS operations superintendent. "The base was only shut down for 20 to 30 minutes, and then we had to simulate it so contractors could go to work. If this were real world, many people would not have gotten onto the base and there would have been a lot of chaos at the gate." The 736th Security Forces Squadron also sent 18 Airmen to escort hospital personnel going to work at the Navy base. In this scenario, a dirty bomb containing Cesium 137 exploded at the Cabras power plant. Cesium 137 is a radioactive substance commonly used in radiation therapy. "CE could have provided support if it were requested, along with bioenvironmental engineers to provide monitoring and manpower support for decontamination," said Lieutenant Burrell. "On this installation we have a lot of subject matter experts who could have provided support by assisting medics with talking to people about the concerns, symptoms and reassurance." The government of Guam had a highly-trained 22-person Civil Support Team who was capable of doing many things Andersen's Civil Engineer Readiness Flight and Bioenvironmental Engineers were capable of doing, such as radiation and contamination monitoring. "There were minimal requests from the island of Guam," said Lieutenant Burrell. "The government of Guam seemed to have mostly handled things on their own and just needed additional support for triage. When we were required to provide information or support, we worked out the details and sent that support." Thirteen Andersen medics were sent to provide initial triage at the Navy emergency room and carry some of the wounded. Seventy-five cots were also delivered to the Guam Memorial Hospital to help with individuals who were near the site. More than 100 people were simulated dead or injured during the explosion. When the power plant was bombed, the power grid shut down, resulting in a power outage on the island. Radioactive contaminant was spread all over the area and caused the port to be shut down for an indefinite period of time. With the port shut down, the island was forced to go into gas, water and food rationing as there was no way to transport those commodities onto the island, said Tech. Sgt. Eric McClure, 36th CES readiness and emergency flight superintendent, who played the role of an Air Force liaison in the venue control center. While the Department of Defense entity was not tasked to go downtown and respond to the incident, they were tasked to come up with answers on how Andersen would deal with the shortage of fuel and food. Questions included, "Are we still going to be able to fly all the missions out, be it real world or exercise, with the B-2s or other contingency aircraft deploying through here?" said Sergeant McClure. "We spent countless hours going over that as well as how we were going to feed all our military personnel here on the island. We can only sustain and store enough food for a certain period of time, and then we need a re-supply; but most of that stuff comes in by ship." In this exercise the 36th Logistics Readiness Squadron was involved with the fuels consumption, availability of supplies and transportation scenarios. "Our big role was figuring out how much fuel we had on hand, how much we could support the base with, and going through a number of calculations to figure out how much fuel we were spending," said Maj. J.D. Holt, 36th LRS commander. "In this case, with the port shut down, we had to do calculations on how much we could support with the flying mission and generators on base." LRS also has contractors who operate and repair government vehicles. They ensure the right vehicles are on hand to support the mission. This includes refueling trucks, tractor trailers and other vehicles, such as the ones used deliver the cots to the hospital. Their vehicles also supported the FEMA team. "We have a readiness flight which does reception and redeployment planning for the wing," said Major Holt. "We're in charge of the reception working group which is a mixture of different specialties all over the base, working with services to find where they will be lodged or where they will eat." The 36th Services Squadron dealt with the lodging accommodations on base to encompass the current rotation, plus the incomers. They provided input on how they would feed the base populace in the event the port was closed down. They also stood by mortuary affairs in case there were any deaths involving military members. "The 36th Services Squadron was well prepared," said Andrew Furman, 36th Services Squadron. "The NCOs in here are top notch and stand ready to perform at a moment's notice. We performed 24-hour operations in the unit control center, and we filtered the information to all our people here." Speaking of filtering information, the 36th Communications Squadron also played a big role in TOPOFF 4. "In these types of instances, communication is crucial," said Capt. Terry Scott, 36th Communications Squadron. "With a lot of unknown factors, it's important to make sure all the communication pieces are in place for senior leaders to make decisions and discuss amongst other senior leaders." The 36th CS made sure the secured and unsecured telephone lines were connected and in place for the installation control center and emergency operations center. They ensured radios, cellular phones, pagers, telephones and all communication devices were available on a moment's notice to support senior leaders, first responders and law enforcement officials. Their job also included contacting the regional operations center to see if they needed any additional support. "If a dirty bomb were to take out a power plant, we would determine if there were any communication lines in the area which indirectly feed Andersen," said Captain Scott. "We would also look to see how that bomb affected the Navy's communication and how they were able to do their day to day business." The biggest challenge for the 36th CS was determining what potential facilities could have been targeted and how it would have affected them. They looked at a number of planning stages potentially at where the key communication assets were and how they would respond if those key assets were taken out on base. "I think everybody worked very professionally, acted with a sense of urgency and put their thinking hats on with not just what happened on end but also the ramifications - a lot of 'what if' scenarios as well," said Captain Scott.