Granite Thunder 2005 rocks New Boston

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Jean Van Allen
  • 50th Space Wing Public Affairs
NEW BOSTON AIR FORCE STATION, N.H. (AFPN) --  A van lies on its side at the edge of a road where two men sprint from the scene into the nearby woods. As a figure lies motionless in the grass beside the van, an ear-piercing explosion suddenly rocks the vehicle, shrouding it and the unknown figure in smoke. Debris arcs high into the air before returning to Earth.

Granite Thunder 2005 has commenced with a bang. The recent major accident response exercise evaluated base and local emergency authorities’ responses to a terrorist event, said Maj. Greg Tobin, 50th Space Wing deputy inspector general and exercise evaluator. The town of New Boston provides the bulk of emergency services for here, one of eight satellite tracking stations the Air Force operates worldwide.

“This exercise is an opportunity for us to do a cooperative drill to ensure that if something like this were to actually happen, we would be able to communicate, operate and respond,” said Lt. Col. Charles Cynamon, 23rd Space Operations Squadron commander.

The squadron is a component of the 50th Network Operations Group at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo.

Earlier that day, base authorities parked the van on the side of the road and tipped it over alongside a training dummy used by local police and fire departments. The explosion and resulting scene created the illusion that a suicide bomber had attempted to gain entry to the base and, having been injured by the gate guard, crashed his vehicle and ended his life.

Besides the exercise explosion, authorities dealt with the van’s two other passengers who had escaped into the woods after wounding security forces Airmen.

The scenario continued as the suspects were later involved in a shootout, leaving one of them injured. He dropped the pack he was carrying, contaminating the base with a chemical substance concealed in the bag.

The base has nearly 3,000 acres of land to protect, and it uses exercises to ensure an immediate response from local authorities.

“The benefit I’ve seen in the last two years is hard to describe,” said Master Sgt. Carmen Petro, 23rd SOPS support flight superintendent, exercise coordinator and base exercise evaluator. “You talk to somebody face to face, and they come down here to participate in the exercise. When the time comes for real-world events, everybody knows each other.

“This is also a good place to have a drill,” he said. “A lot of local firefighters are volunteers, so they don’t have an opportunity to (practice) like this.”

“This exercise helped a wide variety of New Hampshire emergency responders gain proficiency dealing with each other and New Boston,” Major Tobin said. “This interaction will yield huge benefits if there is ever a major event in their state, even if it occurs somewhere other than New Boston.”

Communication between New Boston civil and base emergency responders was essential as the exercise continued to throw surprises at them.

“The biggest thing I saw as an improvement from last year was the communication,” Sergeant Petro said. “There are still some issues to work out, but that’s why we have these exercises.”

During an exercise, communication is key in quickly responding to threats.

“One of the obstacles during these exercises is interpersonal communications -- military talking to civilians,” Colonel Cynamon said. “It’s important that the military understands how civilians are trained and civilians understand how the military is trained. That way, when we have an event such as this, we’ll be on the same sheet of paper.

“The months of planning that go into this exercise are really what drive our ability to communicate effectively,” he said. “I was quite pleased to see the various agencies work together to get the situation resolved in only a couple of hours.”

“Cohesion (among) the services was phenomenal,” Sergeant Petro said. “I saw no personal conflicts; I saw no jurisdictional issues. We had five law enforcement agencies, eight fire and rescue responders and two to three ambulance services. We had police, fire and military all working well together. Instead of incident command, we had unified command.” (Courtesy of Air Force Space Command News Service)