Naval Air Station Responders Unite During Security Breach Exercise

By Lt. j.g. Tim Mosso, Naval Airs Station Whiting Field Public Affairs

MILTON, Fla. (NNS) -- Naval Air Station (NAS) Whiting Field conducted a test of its physical security and emergency response capabilities during a simulated security breach, March 20.

The drill, which was conducted as a component of the March 19-25, Navywide Solid Curtain/Citadel Shield force protection exercise, was designed to engage and evaluate each of the air station's crisis response professions.

Rudy Mendiola, NAS Whiting Field Training and Exercise coordinator, described the drill as a security response simulation, albeit one focused on those disciplines unique to the air station.

"It's what we call an ECP-entry control point protection. Nationally, everyone is going to simulate an elevated force protection status. [NAS Whiting Field] has coordinated our installation services to focus on exercising their individual, unique capabilities," Mendiola said.

The air station's personnel were confronted with a scenario involving forced entry to base grounds by a suspicious, unauthorized private vehicle. The initial stage of the drill engaged the physical security forces of the base under the aegis of Security Department training officer Rodney Wood.

"We had the primary lead since it was a security breach; we're the first responders, Wood said. "Our role was to detect the breach, neutralize the threat, and secure the scene for the other agencies. Once the physical task of extraction was judged beyond the capabilities of the first responders, because it's an integrated exercise, we handed that task to fire suppression crews and paramedical teams from the Fire Department."

Following a brief pursuit, the "bogie" simulated a desperate evasion maneuver, and base crews were instructed to respond as if the vehicle had been disabled, rendered hazardous, and impervious to safe occupant extraction.

This sequence was designed to test the teams' professional skills as well as their communication procedures. Security established initial on-scene command, and a dynamic, on-the-fly turnover of authority was required in order to ensure no delay in the deployment of fire crews. The interaction of agencies during this process was judged essential to the success of the exercise.

"When security got on the scene today, they saw a vehicle upturned, assessed the situation, realized the extraction and treatment was beyond their immediate capabilities, and they did an on-scene change-of-command with fire [crews]," Wood said.

The arrival of fire crews introduced fire suppression and paramedical capabilities to the on-scene resources, but a new challenge emerged. As firefighters and EMT personnel approached the wreck, unspecified "hazardous material" was declared to be present on the scene.

The additional threat element prompted a temporary withdrawal while suppression crews reviewed the potential hazards. Ultimately, the material was judged to be spilt gasoline, not an improvised explosive, and crews were able to manage the risk while tending to the intruder.

"As far as the planning, conducting the exercise, the crews performed outstanding. All of our objectives on the scene were met; they did everything I was looking for," Fire and EMS training officer Chief Brian Tracey, said. "We build experience on every single drill, regardless of how well or successfully we execute, but they really excelled today. And a big part of this drill was communication with Security, which was great. The transfer went off without a hitch," he added.

Base Public Works Environmental personnel were the last to engage the crash scene. While specialist skills of Security, Fire, and EMT personnel addressed the most exigent threats, the lingering challenge of scattered pollutants required a different approach. Public Works environmental director Mike Pattison illustrated the challenge.

"Environmental would be called in once [the] security and fire [crews] have secured the scene in their respective fashions and released the site to [the] environmental [crew]. We will restore the site from any hazmat spills. Today, we were on site with a dedicated spill responder," Pattison said.

While interdisciplinary responders served as the core of the drill team, they were not alone. In order to make the drill as representative as possible, personnel from unrelated base agencies were on hand to experience the pace, process, and intensity of a crisis situation.

Individuals from Morale, Welfare, and Recreation, Branch Medical Clinic, public affairs, the chaplain's office, and the Fleet and Family Support Center were all present.

"We wanted them to get used to operating in this environment because they [non-responders] are not used to being in these situations. Of course, the interdisciplinary handoff was outstanding because these groups work with each other all the time on simulations, but we wanted to broaden the experience of our other personnel to prepare them," Mendiola said.

The air station conducts a minimum of four significant force protection and crisis response drills per calendar year. Ultimately, the goal of each is to ensure safety for the base's personnel and mission readiness for the core task of training naval aviators. Wood views this objective as the ultimate benefit of diligent preparation.

"Whiting Field is, above all, about its people. We have students, staff, dependents, and retirees who depend on a safe environment. We want people to come aboard and feel safe."

Maryland Governor Signs Proclamation Declaring April 'Month of the Military Child'

By Benjamin Christensen, Naval District Washington Public Affairs

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (NNS) -- Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley signed a proclamation March 19, declaring April 2012 as Month of the Military Child, the first such declaration to be made in the state of Maryland.

This proclamation follows on the heels of a similar one by Mayor C. Vincent Gray for the District of Columbia last week.

"While several other states have issued proclamations designating April as Month of the Military Child, we were delighted to have Governor O'Malley respond positively to the request for such a proclamation for all military connected children and youth in Maryland," said Carol Mohsberg, school liaison officer for Naval Support Activity Annapolis.

Although there more than 40,000 military children living in Maryland, much focus is spent on their parents' dedication and sacrifices, while children in military families are often overlooked. The so-called "military brats" often make huge sacrifices of their own due to the great demands on their parents.

"While we often recognize the active duty or reserve service member, it is important to remember that 'kids serve, too'; in their schools, their neighborhoods, their communities, etcetera," said Mohsberg.

Jennifer Dailey-Perkins, regional school liaison officer for Naval District Washington (NDW), said April has been utilized as a particular month to honor children from military families since 1986, when then-Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger requested members of all the military branches take that time especially to commend military children for stoically enduring the trials they often face.

"Since then each April, military installations around the world honor our young heroes with special activities and events, specifically for them," said Dailey-Perkins. "These festivities let them know that they are valued and supported."

This time is also being used to remind service families that there are indeed resources available for them. Each installation in NDW has a School Liaison Office "who is available to offer assistance to military families who have school-aged children with transition and deployment needs."

"Additionally, our entire NDW Child and Youth Program team stand ready to assist our military children and take pause this month to celebrate their achievements," said Dailey-Perkins.

For additional information and resources for military families with children, visit the Military Health System at http://www.health.mil/Themes/Military_Children.aspx.

Navywide Force Protection Exercise Kicks Off in Hampton Roads

By Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Darian Kenneyn, Navy Public Affairs Support Element East

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (NNS) -- Exercise Solid Curtain-Citadel Shield 2012 kicked off with an "active shooter" force protection drill on Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story Feb. 19.

The exercise simulated a Sailor attacking a shipmate with a weapon on a small boat and randomly shooting throughout the harbor. The scenario was designed to train and evaluate the integrated training team, made up of anti-terrorism, emergency management, fire and emergency services, Family Readiness and Facility Support personnel.

During the exercise, an active shooter alert was broadcast throughout the base with the Navy and the Coast Guard responding quickly to locate and neutralize the suspect.

Capt. Charles Stuppard, commander of JEB Little Creek-Fort Story, was there first hand to watch the drill and observe his security team in action.

"We train in case something like this happens. We will be ready to protect the base, protect our personnel and continue our military operations," said Stuppard. "I feel very secure with what I see. Our team can respond to any, if not all, contingencies or any scenarios."

The base integrated training team evaluated the emergency response personnel's ability to respond to an active shooter combined with the small boat attack.

"We went over different response procedures to prepare for today, and our team did well in the exercise,'' said Master-at-Arms 1st Class Brian Rice, force protection team leader. "Safety was a big concern out here, but everything went well."

This drill was the first of many held throughout the week, as the level of security on all bases will rise and stress different areas of the Navy's anti-terrorism program.

Exercise Solid Curtain-Citadel Shield 2012 tests Navy security forces on threat response for installations and units across the nation and is the largest anti- terrorism/force protection exercise in the nation.

This annual event is not in response to any specific threat and is a regularly scheduled exercise.

Training evolutions like Exercise Solid Curtain-Citadel Shield 2012 are key elements of the readiness area of the 21st Century Sailor and Marine initiative which consolidates a set of objectives and policies, new and existing, to maximize Sailor and Marine personal readiness, build resiliency and hone the most combat-effective force in the history of the Department of the Navy.

Face of Defense: Loadmaster Soars on ‘American Idol’

By Air Force 2nd Lt. Ander Bowser

439th Airlift Wing

WESTOVER AIR RESERVE BASE, Mass., March 21, 2012 – For one aspiring singer here, her 15 minutes of fame stretched out over weeks as a contestant on the Fox singing competition series “American Idol.”

Millions of viewers watched Air Force Tech. Sgt. Blaire Sieber’s opportunity to live out her dream.

"It's really hard to describe the experience," the 337th Airlift Squadron loadmaster said in a telephone interview. "You feel like you're on top of the world."

Sieber, from Medford, Mass., received marks of approval from the “American Idol” judges: singer-actress Jennifer Lopez, rock legend Steven Tyler and Grammy Award-winning producer Randy Jackson during her bid to be a finalist in the show’s 11th season.

The first step was her audition in Savannah, Ga.

"I wasn't sure that I was going to make it, so I turned it into a vacation just in case," she said.

But the audition process was no vacation, she said. Potential contestants endure at least three sets of cuts. The number of people who show up to audition can exceed 10,000 in each city, but only a few hundred make it past the first preliminary auditions. Those who are chosen then sing in front of producers. After another cut, contestants audition in front of the judges, which is the only audition phase shown on the show.

Those selected by these judges are then sent to Hollywood for the start of the process that yields the finalists who compete for audience votes when the competition starts in earnest.

Sieber said her experience consisted of many long days.

"It's the first round that takes the longest. I got there at 5 or 6 in the morning," she said. "I don't think I auditioned until 4 in the afternoon, and some people might not have auditioned until 2 the next morning."

The odds of being selected are slim. Anywhere from 10 to 60 of the thousands who audition in each of several cities make it to the Hollywood round.

"We all put “‘American Idol’ on a pedestal, because it has been going on for so long," Sieber said. "You feel like you're on this rollercoaster that is perpetually moving."

Sieber made it to the top 42 performers out of the more than 100,000 contestants who auditioned and the hundreds who had advanced to Hollywood. And this wasn't her first time making it onto the show’s audition episodes.

"This is my third time auditioning, and second time on the show," said Sieber, a certified nursing assistant who is studying to become a nurse. "I didn't make it to Hollywood the first time." Last year, she received the coveted “golden ticket” to Hollywood, but was unable to advance past the first round there.

This year, Sieber advanced through three "Hollywood Week" rounds and one performance round in Las Vegas, which got her into the top 42. She bowed out gracefully when her time was up.

Sieber said she would do it again if given the opportunity. "You have to keep high hopes and say, 'It is going to work out in the end,'" she said.

The judges’ comments encouraged her, Sieber said, noting that Tyler liked her "growl."

"Get comfortable with that growl in your voice and become friends with it," The Aerosmith singer said. Lopez told the aspiring singer to open up more.

"She told me that she wanted more from me," Sieber said. "The way I interpreted it was that she wanted more emotion in my singing."

Sieber said it was a challenge to compete in front of such musical luminaries.

"Before my first critique from J-Lo, I tried not to focus on whether the judges were dancing in their seats or not," Sieber said. "They are still people you idolize, but you have to focus on your performance."

Sieber has eight years of experience as a C-5 loadmaster. When she puts on the uniform to serve in the Air Force Reserve here, she said, it's all military business.

"I'm really lucky because I'm aircrew, and they've given me opportunities to reschedule my unit training assemblies, volunteer for missions and manage my Reserve schedule with a week here, a couple weeks there," she said. "That has really helped me get the hang of balancing the Reserve with my school and work schedules."

Striking a balance in service to her country, her medical career, educational and singing aspirations has been tough, but not impossible, she said.

(Air Force Senior Airman Kelly Galloway, 439th Airlift Wing, contributed to this article.)

DOD Develops Cyberspace Rules of Engagement

By Cheryl Pellerin

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON  – Whether by land, sea or air, Defense Department leaders have long crafted rules of engagement to determine how, where and when forces can attack the enemy. They expect soon to complete the same for their newest domain: cyberspace, the assistant secretary of defense for global strategic affairs said today.

“We are working closely with the Joint Staff on the implementation of a transitional command-and-control model for cyberspace operations” while reviewing existing rules of engagement, Madelyn R. Creedon told the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities.

Teresa M. Takai, DOD’s chief information officer, and Army Gen. Keith Alexander, commander of U.S. Cyber Command, joined Creedon at the hearing.

“This interim framework,” Creedon told the panel, “will standardize existing organizational structures and command relationships across the department for the application of the full spectrum of cyberspace capabilities.”

Describing DOD’s strategies for operating in cyberspace, Creedon said the department maintains more than 15,000 network enclaves and 7 million computing devices in installations around the globe.

“DOD continues to develop effective strategies for ensuring the United States is prepared for all cyber contingencies along the entire spectrum,” she added, “from peace to crisis to war.”

In times of fiscal constraint, Creedon said, DOD also is taking advantage of efficiencies provided by information technology advances.

“The department has been working around the clock, often in close cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies,” she said, to protect the nation from cyber threats that include the theft of intellectual property, as well as damage to the defense industrial base, the economy and national security.

The department hit a “significant milestone” last July with the release of its first strategy for operating in cyberspace, Creedon said. The document builds on President Barack Obama’s International Strategy for Cyberspace and the DOD Quadrennial Defense Review, and guides the department’s military, business and intelligence activities in cyberspace in support of national interests, she said.

The DOD works closely with colleagues in the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, State, Treasury, Commerce and other agencies, she added, and pursues bilateral and multilateral engagements to enhance security and develop norms of behavior in cyberspace.

Takai told the panel that DOD’s $37 billion information technology budget request for fiscal year 2013 includes a range of IT investments, including $3.4 billion for cyber security efforts to protect information, information systems and networks against known cyber vulnerabilities.

It also includes $182 million for Cyber Command for cyber network defense, cryptographic systems, communications security, network resiliency, workforce development, and development of cyber security standards and technologies department-wide.

Among efforts to improve effectiveness and efficiency, Takai explained, “is consolidation of the department’s IT infrastructure, networks, computing services, data centers, application and data services, while simultaneously improving the ability to defend that infrastructure against growing cyber threats.”

Her office is leading the implementation of the initiatives, the chief information officer added, “but it is important that we work closely with the services, Joint Staff and U.S. Cyber Command to more aggressively modernize our overall information systems.”

A pillar of that modernization is a move to a single, joint network architecture, Takai said, allowing DOD and Cyber Command better visibility into network activity and better defense against cyber attacks.

Individually, she said, the services and agencies have taken action to better position the information enterprise and security posture.

The department has made significant progress in several areas, Takai said. One effort involved deploying a modular system called a host-based security system that enhances situational awareness of the network and improves the ability to detect, diagnose and react to cyber intrusions.

“We’ve also taken the lead in assessing the risk of the global supply chain to our critical information and communications technology,” Takai added, and has instituted a successful defense industrial base cyber security and information assurance program.

Alexander said cyber defense requires contributions not only from DOD, but from Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Defense Information Systems Agency -- “all key partners in helping us do our cyber mission.”

Cyber space is becoming more dangerous, he added.

“The intelligence community’s worldwide threat brief to Congress in January raised cyber threats to just behind terrorism and [nuclear] proliferation in its list of the biggest challenges facing the nation.”

The task of assuring cyberspace access, the general said, “has drawn the attention of our nation’s most senior leaders over the last year and their decisions have helped to clarify what we can and must do about developments that greatly concern us.”

Cyber Command is specifically charged with directing the security, operation and defense of DOD’s information systems, he added, “but our work and actions are affected by threats well outside DOD networks … threats the nation cannot afford to ignore.”

Dangers are not something new in cyberspace.

“Nation-state actors in cyberspace are riding a tide of criminality,” the general said. “Several nations have turned their resources and power against us and foreign businesses and enterprises, even those that manage critical infrastructure in this country, and others.”

For the panel, Alexander described five key areas Cyber Command is working on:

-- Building the enterprise and training the force;

--Developing a defensible architecture;

--Getting authorities needed to operate in cyberspace;

--Setting the teamwork properly across U.S. government agencies; and

--Creating a concept of operations for operating in cyberspace.

“I think we’re making progress,” Alexander said, “but … the risks that face our country are growing faster than our progress and we have to work hard on that.”