BREMERTON, Wash. –
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility and Commander, Submarine Group 9, hosted a command visit for local emergency management State, County, and U.S. Coast Guard partners June 6, to help establish and reinforce close and enduring relationships with partner agencies and promote understanding for how the Navy Emergency Response Organizations and Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program personnel would respond to an all hazards emergency.
Forty one people from Kitsap County Department of Emergency Management, Kitsap Public Health District, South Kitsap Fire and Rescue, Bainbridge Island Fire Department, Washington Emergency Management Division, Washington State Department of Health’s Office of Radiation Protection, Washington State Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound were able to collaborate and share information throughout the event.
According to Malynda Green, emergency planning outreach program manager, Code 105.6, Radiological Emergency Planning Division, command visits can help instill understanding and trust in the Navy’s ability to respond to an emergency such as a shipboard fire or earthquake, in an efficient and principles-based manner.
“Through this [command visit] our civil authority partners got to learn about our ‘One Team, One Mission’ approach to emergency response,” Green said. “This was an opportunity to demonstrate transparency to our partners, and show them how we would communicate with them in the highly unlikely case of an all hazards response.”
According to Carlos Soto, outreach branch head, Code 105.6, this outreach event was the first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. Guests received an introduction to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program and an orientation explaining the various Navy emergency management organizations such as Code 105.6, Submarine Group 9, Naval Base Kitsap, Navy Region Northwest, Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific, and Code 1130, Emergency Planning.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Kitsap Public Health District provided the Navy with an understanding of their emergency response authority and capabilities.
Along with emergency management-related breakout sessions and in collaboration with U.S. Coast Guard, guests toured USS San Juan (SSN 751) and U.S. Coast Guard vessels USCGC Sea Lion and a patrol boat, which moored at Pier D. In addition, Navy Region Northwest Fire and Emergency Services apparatus; the Incident Command Post Vehicle; a Code 105.3, Radiological Monitoring Division, Field Monitoring Team; and the Code 1130 Emergency Communications vehicle were also on display at Pier D. Subject matter experts were also available to answer guests’ questions.
According to Soto, PSNS & IMF and Submarine Group 9 view the event as a success, with many attendees expressing thanks to the Navy for investing the time and effort to offer the local emergency management community this opportunity.
“All attendees were able to access the Emergency Control Center,” Soto said. “This helps our partners learn who they would be communicating with in the event of an emergency, and to see the capabilities our folks have.”
According to Green, command visits help to ensure that Team Navy and its regional partners can work together to respond to an emergency in a robust and coordinated manner.
“We want our local partners to know that Team Navy is a regionally-integrated, high-performing all-hazards emergency preparedness and response team,” Green said. “They should know we are agile and respond from a principles-based understanding and we stand ready to keep our partners and the local community informed in the event of an emergency.”