Active shooter drill at NAS Meridian

Today at the Naval Air Station in Meridian, shots were fired, but the pretend active shooter was taken down swiftly.

“This is our local exercise, really where the rubber meets the road in terms of how we executive our procedures to handle those kinds of events that threaten our equipment, personnel, and activities here at the Naval Air Station,” said Commander J.P. Falardeau.

This Citadel Shield Solid Curtain 2019 Drill is happening at Navy bases across the country this time of the year. This is a way for those on base to focus on scenarios that can threaten their main mission.

“Most of my team members have more than one responsibility, and they do it with a smile on their face every day. I try to foster in an environment where we have fun, but we get the work done. I want everybody come to work and enjoy being at work and making the mission happen,” said NAS Meridian Security Officer Lt. Barion Haywood.

And with training to protect this mission, comes making sure everything is done correctly.

“Our blue forces players were able to take that training team and walk them through the procedure step-by-step, so they know what right looks like. This is our opportunity to take lessons learned from that and be able to apply those in a real-world scenario. With each one of these drills we look to get better each time, apply those lessons learned, and improve as we go along,” said Commander Falardeau.

The training will be taking place until February 15th.