JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A possible shooter on a Navy base is an emergency call no one wants to take, but it's happened at several bases in the U.S., and officials at Naval Station Mayport want to make sure they're ready to handle a similar situation.
Mayport security worked Tuesday morning with several agencies, including the FBI and NCIS, to conduct active shooter drills.
"Unfortunately these things are very realistic and the probability of these happening is extremely high," Mission Readiness Officer Willie Green said.
All hands were on deck Tuesday as dozens of first-responders and law enforcement agencies conducted an active shooter scenario.
"We've got a disgruntled person that's going to walk into our fleet exchange, going to start shooting," Green explained of the drill.
Then it was time to react.
"I try to give my first-responders the best reaction from my role-players that they'll probably see, distraught, scared, panicky," Green said. "I try to give them a variety of those to see how they deal with it and how it affects them mentally as well."
Several sailors were shot, some killed in the exercise. But no one was really injured.
The weapons that were used were computer-based and measured the accuracy of the first-responders and the shooter.
"That also tells us if our entry procedures are good," Green said. "If the bad guy kills my first-responders, then it tells me we need to go back to the drawing board on how we enter this building."
In the end, the shooter in the drill didn't make it out alive and emergency responders were able to react quickly and contain the situation.
Green said these types of exercises are conducted at least four times a year, which is standard procedure to keep everyone on their toes.
?After the drill, all of the emergency responders get together for what the Navy calls a "hotwash," in which they critique what happened during the drill and make the necessary changes to successfully react to similar situation.