Active-shooter excercise Tuesday Published Jan. 26, 2010 By Senior Airman Emerald Ralston 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- Fairchild will be holding an active-shooter exercise Tuesday. This exercise is to help prepare those on base for what to do in the event a shooting takes place within the confines of base. Those who are on base that are not involved in the scenario are reminded this is simply an exercise and not to be alarmed. "[What we hope to gain from this exercise is] all personnel and units to learn and improve processes, procedures, and communication," said Kurt Temple, 92nd Air Refueling Wing Plans and Programs. "Each and every Team Fairchild member needs to be able to perform his or her job without hesitation, correctly and in a professional manner. This knowledge builds and, from the wing commander to the newest Airman, helps the wing identify and prevent such events from happening on our installation. Ultimately we gain and fine-tune the critical skill sets needed to respond quickly to mitigate the event appropriately. The goal is to be able to safely return wing operations to normal as soon as possible after an incident." Safety during an exercise like this is always a concern and those on base are encouraged to be aware of their surroundings and continue to pay attention to suspicious activity. "Safety is our first and foremost concern in all exercises," said Temple. "Some exercises are drawn from the experiences of worldwide events and when we initially begin building an exercise, we turn to our safety experts to help develop and ensure safe conditions are going to be present." Several things go into successfully accomplishing an exercise of this nature. "Communication, coordination, attention to detail, and strong supervision are keys to ensuring exercises, especially this type, run smoothly," Temple said. "Fairchild team members need to report all suspicious activity through appropriate security channels and conduct themselves as they've been trained to do. Often it's the youngest Airman that sees something that just doesn't look or feel right and they need to report their observations." All of these things will lead to an overall learning experience for Team Fairchild to effectively deal with a situation of this nature if it were to arise. "We expect a great deal of learning to occur at all levels involving base personnel that can be applied to our daily missions and increase our readiness," said Temple. "It is with this increased knowledge and experience, applied to the way we conduct operations, that in the end makes Fairchild more secure and better prepared to mitigate and/or respond to a crisis."