JBPHH hosts emergency ops incident management course

Capt. Jeffrey James, commander of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, addresses the audience at the senior leaders, emergency management training held Aug. 9 at Hickam Memorial Theatre. U.S. Navy photos by David Underwood Jr.

Twenty-six students gained valuable training in incident management during the Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC) Emergency Operations Center Incident Management Team (EOC-IMT) course held Aug. 6 to 9 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH).

Since its inception, CNIC has been involved with anti-terrorism and emergency preparedness training in response to lessons learned from previous natural and man-made disasters and the presidential report on the federal response to Hurricane Katrina that read, “An investment in the continued training and exercises of our command and control is a top priority.”

The class was composed of fire, security, safety, emergency management and various other specialists from the Air Force and Navy, assigned to the JBPHH emergency operations center. Each student learned how to properly serve as a member of the EOC-IMT so they can coordinate together and respond to a man-made or natural disaster.

“Bringing the course here to JBPHH provides us with greater training opportunities for JBPHH personnel while having them learn in an environment where they will naturally function in an emergency.” said Dan Du-Bois, emergency management officer for JBPHH.

EOC-IMT course lessons covered EOC team member roles and responsibilities, information management, communications and the use of the C4I Suite, the Navy’s current common operating picture online application. The course also included several practical application classroom exercises requiring student working groups to apply the knowledge gained during lectures.

For the operations center exercises, students were broken into common EOC functional groupings (operations, logistics and plans) and given a practical scenario of an on-base emergency in which they are forced to realistically lead, brief, coordinate and plan. Each day, classroom instruction was followed by an EOC exercise that became increasingly complex as the course progressed.

Lt. Gabe Caldwell, JBPHH food service officer, attended the course for the first time to get a basic understanding of how the EOC operates. “The training conducted provided good communication techniques, situational awareness, teamwork and planning,” he said. Caldwell will be involved with mass care in the EOC.

After the three-and-a-half day course, senior leaders had an opportunity to attend a special emergency management training designed for tenant organizations commanders, deputies, executive officers and senior enlisted personnel. The robust training covered the status of the emergency management program and support requirements for tenant organizations.

Featured guest speaker Dr. Gerard Fryer, geophysicist from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, presented lessons learned from the Japan tsunami and implications for Hawaii.

Rocco Forte, former emergency management officer from Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., presented lessons learned from the 2007 I-35 bridge collapse.