Yokota Airmen train with Japanese police

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Matt Summers
  • 374th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan (AFNS) --  Members of the 374th Security Forces Squadron here conducted a joint response training exercise with members of the Japanese National Police-Fussa Division March 26 here.

Fussa officials came up with idea of a joint unexploded ordnance response and investigation exercise to educate new police leaders and patrolmen on responding to just such an incident at Yokota Air Base.

More than 20 security forces members and local policemen blended their unique talents during the exercise based in part on real attacks on the base during a Group of Eight summit in 2000 and shortly before a visit by then-President Bill Clinton in 1993. According to news reports, leftists radicals fired a pair of projectiles toward the base and one landed near the runway in 2000. In the 1993 attack, radicals fired two home-made rockets at the base and caused minimal damage.

The exercise began with a call to the base's law enforcement desk from Fussa policemen to simulate a report of explosions off base and the discovery of launching tubes pointed toward the installation.

Shortly after making the call, Japanese National Police members responded to the base to begin a joint search for a projectile. Following a brief command and control meeting facilitated by security forces interpreters, the combined forces stretched into a single line several hundred feet long, similar in appearance to a foreign-object-damage walk of the flightline.

Moments after the sweep began, a member of the Fussa police spotted the simulated projectile adjacent to a building and immediately called for his boss, the chief inspector of Fussa's security division. The chief, the highest ranking member of the Fussa contingent, crouched safely behind a security shield similar to those carried by military explosive ordnance disposal teams and moved cautiously toward the object.

Once he determined the object was not an explosive, he called investigators forward to gather evidence from the area -- considered a crime scene under Japanese law.

During a debriefing, Chief Inspector Junichi Yakushi said he was proud of everyone's effort.

"If the real thing happens, now we will know what to do," he said. "I hope we can have more exercises like this in the future."

Senior Master Sgt. Jared Klingaman, the 374th SFS operations and training superintendent, said he was impressed at how well the two teams came together.

"For people who don't speak the same language to come together and establish command and control this quickly is impressive," he said.

He told his security forces members their performance enhanced the squadron's standing with their counterparts in the Fussa Division.

"This strengthens our relations with them -- and this scenario could very well happen for real," said Sergeant Klingaman, who was stationed here during the 1993 attack.

Airman 1st Class Richard Walker, a 374th SFS Charlie Flight member, said he was impressed with how well the Japanese policemen adapted to working alongside a military organization.

"They came ready to go, with their armor and prepared to respond to a mortar attack," he said.

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