Prep for unit inspection begins

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Christopher Gross
  • JBER PAO
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  Last Friday may have been con¬fusing for some on the installation.

With Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson's Unit Compliance Inspection coming up Oct. 18 to 22, the installation recently held and is planning another emergency management exercise for Oct. 7, in preparation for the UCI.

"The Emergency Management Exercises test the installation's ability to respond to a mass casu¬alty event on base as well as imple¬mentation of FPCONs in response to a local threat," said Maj. Michael Dinwiddie, who was the exercise director responsible for inspecting and planning the exercise. "Our emergency responders are well trained but these exercises provide them larger scale training with mul¬tiple base agencies and players."

Maj. Dinwiddie also said, he felt we learned a lot during the last EME, but still need to make improvements before the inspec¬tion in October. He added, some of those improvements could be ensuring all installation units and agencies, to include tenants, par¬ticipate on FPCON implementa¬tions, which could cause some in¬conveniences, such as single point of entry to buildings and vehicle parking standoff from buildings.
Prior to the EME Oct. 7, there may be some build up in scenario and escalation in force protection conditions so it is important to know what FPCON levels are.

FPCON Alpha - This condition applies when there is an increased general threat of possible terror¬ist activity against personnel or facilities, the nature and extent of which are unpredictable, and circumstances do not justify full implementation of FPCON Bravo measures.

However, it may be necessary to implement certain measures from higher FPCONs resulting from intelligence received or as a deterrent. The measures in this FPCON must be capable of being maintained indefinitely.

FPCON Bravo - Applies when an increased or more predictable threat of terrorist activity exists. Sustaining Bravo measures for a prolonged period may affect opera¬tional capability and military-civil relationships with local authorities.

FPCON Charlie - Applies when an incident occurs or intel¬ligence is received indicating that some form of terrorist action or targeting against personnel or facilities is likely. Prolonged implementation of Charlie mea¬sures may create hardship and affect the activities of the unit and its personnel.

FPCON Delta - Applies in the immediate area where a terrorist attack has occurred or when in¬telligence has been received that terrorist action against a specific location or person is imminent. FPCON Delta is usually declared as a localized condition.

FPCON Delta measures are not intended to be sustained for an extended duration.
Force protection implementa¬tion will be directed by the JBER installation commander. Units can contact their unit control centers to find out the current FPCON level.

The UCI incident will be "no-notice" and will occur sometime between Oct. 18 and 22. The inci-dent that will take place will occur on the Richardson side, per Pacific Air Forces Inspector General in¬structions.

People can also expect buildup to the UCI scenario to begin as early as Oct. 14.
Personnel can also receive updates for the exercises and real-world scenarios through several forms of communication to include postings on the electronic marquees outside the main gates, the commander's access channel, the JBER website at www.jber.af.mil, 552-4636 and JBER's social media sites, like the Twitter account which is under JBER_PA and Facebook page under JBER will be updated with the most current information.