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Navy Region Hawaii Conducts Anti-terrorism Exercise

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS090815-18
Release Date: 8/15/2009 11:19:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW) Mark Logico, Commander, Navy Region Hawaii Public Affairs

PEARL HARBOR (NNS) -- Commander, Navy Region Hawaii hosted the first large scale anti-terrorism field training exercise (AT FTX) at Naval Station Pearl Harbor (NSPH) and Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), Aug. 10-13

Paulele Palulu (Reliant Shield) or PAPA09, is an annual anti-terrorism exercise involving more than 500 Sailors in the Hawaii area.

"The purpose of this training is to see if we could get both of our installations, NSPH and PMRF to coordinate activities related to security threats throughout the Hawaiian area," said Chad Payuer, PAPA09 lead planner.

During the exercise, NSPH, PMRF and afloat security units, including the guided-missile destroyers USS O'Kane (DDG 77) and USS Hopper (DDG 70) were drilled to respond to waterborne terrorist threats in the Pearl Harbor basin.

"This exercise increases our warfighting readiness by safeguarding our personnel and assets here in Hawaii while simultaneously developing skills that are transferable when Sailors deploy to the frontline," said Cmdr. Jeanene Torrance, PAPA09 exercise director. "This is in line with the CNO's [chief of Naval Operations] desire to assess our return on investment by examining our procedures and updating plans to ensure the appropriate balance of efficiency and risk."

Chief Intelligence Specialist (SW) Jason Wohlfert led the anti-terrorism training team aboard O'Kane during the exercise.

"Basically, the test we saw this week was whether or not U.S. forces in homeport can actually defend our ships and that we can react in time. Today was very successful," he said.

For the sake of realism, PAPA09 participants used real weapons with blank rounds and Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES) gear. MILES gear is the military's version of laser tag.

"We are fulfilling an annual Navy requirement to evaluate the installation's readiness to respond to a terrorist threat," said Torance. "It is important for all military installations to continually evaluate their security procedures for areas needing improvement and identify training shortfalls."

PAPA09 is the result of lessons learned from the Citadel Protect 2008 AT FTX exercise at Naval Station Norfolk.

For more news from Commander, Navy Region Hawaii, visit www.navy.mil/local/cnrh/.