Eglin Airmen, Coast Guardsmen protect human health, environment

  • Published
  • By Jerron Barnett
  • Team Eglin Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Recently, Eglin Airmen and U.S. Coast Guardsmen from various stations across the nation participated in an annual week-long spill response training course and exercise conducted by Eglin spill response program officials.

More than 3,050 feet of boom, a floatation device used to contain a chemical spill from a simulated fuel barge leak from spreading, was deployed to keep more than a million gallons of JP-8 fuel contained in Weekly Bayou . A fuel station that's tied to the Gulf Coast Barge Network sits in Weekly Bayou and services Naval Air Station Pensacola, Hurlburt Field, Eglin and Tyndall Air Force Bases--a likely spot for a catastrophic fuel spill that could cause millions of dollars in environmental damages if not contained.

There were many goals of this exercise, the most of important of which was to satisfy a requirement by law that Eglin successfully deploy and test its spill response equipment and procedures annually.  

"The goal is to adequately protect human health and environment," Bruce Stippich, Eglin Spill Response Program manager, said. "Plus, it gives members of organizations such as the U.S. Coast Guard's National Strike Force Gulf Strike Team (Mobile, Ala.) a chance to practice their skills."

"For a lot of us, we've haven't had an opportunity to get hands on training like this," Lt. Jose Caballero, Incident Management Division, Atlantic Area, said, who served as the incident commander for the exercise. "It was a great experience for me to learn from other Guardsmen from other units."

Halfway through the training course, Lt. Caballero was told by instructors that he would be the incident commander for the exercise, the first time he had held that role in an exercise of this nature. From that moment on, he watched as leaders emerged from the rest of the class that he would eventually appoint as his logistics, operations and support element leaders.

"Being a first time for me (being an incident commander), that was key to be able to see the kind of makeup we would have on our team," Lt. Caballero said. "I think that served us well."

It served them very well indeed. Once the entry team initially assessed the scene and reported their findings back, The USCG and USAF team successfully deployed boom in six key locations in four hours less than the previous class did.

"We knew communication would be a tough thing to overcome at first as it always is, but once we settled down, things moved pretty quickly," Chief Boatswain's Mate David Eddie, USCG Gulf Strike Team, who served as the operations officer during the exercise, said. "I think things went very well." 

Frequent use of the word "awesome" came from the mouths of both element leaders and participants during the exercise outbrief session, describing various aspects of the team's effort during the exercise such as boom deployment, decontamination setup and execution and overcoming equipment malfunctions.

Recent realignment and personnel shifts within the 96th Civil Engineer Group and other Eglin units have reduced Eglin's own spill response team manpower assets, so it's important to practice with personnel from other organizations that would come and help Eglin's responders, Mr. Stippich said.

"I'm confident that we could contain a spill with what we have on hand until the appropriate organizations could respond," Mr. Stippich said.

One of those organizations that would aid Eglin is the USCG Gulf Strike Team, and BMC Eddie said they could have responding personnel here assessing a situation in less than an hour. Depending on the size of the spill in an area like Weekly Bayou that spills out to Choctawhatchee Bay, hundreds of personnel from various state and federal agencies would line the Eglin coast to assess the extent of the damage from a fuel spill.

"We are always ready to go," he said.