Joint Security Forces Training

CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. - Officers from various agencies move in a diamond formation down a hallway in Building 1160 May 7 searching for an active shooter as part of a training course. The three-day "Patrol Response to Active Shooter" course is taught by the National Tactical Officers Association. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class James R. Bell)

Joint Security Forces Training

CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. - Senior Airman Joshua Jacobson, 27th Special Operations Security Forces Squadron, stands guard as a "casualty" is helped to safety by the rest of his four-man team during a training course that took place in Building 1160 May 7. The three-day "Patrol Response to Active Shooter" course is taught by the National Tactical Officers Association. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class James R. Bell)

Joint Security Forces Training

CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. - A local police officer fires a simunition round toward an active shooter during a training course in Building 1160 May 7. The three-day "Patrol Response to Active Shooter" course is taught by the National Tactical Officers Association. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class James R. Bell)

Joint Security Forces Training

CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. - "Casualties", volunteers from base, lay on the floor of Building 1160, a vacated dormitory, distracting law enforcement agents to test their response during a mock critical hostage situation May 7. The first four-man team went forward to neutralize the threat as the second team (pictured) evacuated the injured. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class James R. Bell)

Cannon security forces, local lawmen train together for crises

Published May 9, 2008
By Airman 1st Class Elliott Sprehe
27th Special Operations Wing Public Affairs

CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- Bodies lay strewn about on the floor like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Cries for help reverberated off the walls as four-man teams searched for the creator of this carnage. Gunshots cut through the cries and the acrid smell of gunpowder filled the air.

Fortunately, as real as this scenario seemed, it wasn't. The location was one of Cannon's vacated dormitories and the action on May 8 was a simulated shooting, part of a training course taught by the National Tactical Officers Association.

Created in 1983, the NTOA teaches courses ranging from basic SWAT to crisis negotiation to law enforcement agencies across the country. The course Cannon hosted included security forces, Clovis SWAT, and a few other agencies.

"This is the first time NTOA has conducted training on Cannon," said Master Sgt. Kimberly Grewe, 27th Special Operations Security Forces Squadron. More than 10 agencies participated in the three-day course.

The course, Patrol Response to Active Shooter, teaches law enforcement officers how to handle deployment/rapid intervention techniques. Some of the topics covered are a history of active shooter situations such as school shootings, movement tactics, and classroom instruction.

"We're training to respond if there was a shooter inside a largely populated facility, such as schools, the Base Exchange, or large office buildings," said Sergeant Grewe.

The first two days of training are in preparation of the third day, when four-man fire teams run through different scenarios. The scenarios range from one gunman in a room to a hidden gunman waiting to be apprehended.

Increasing the realism and tension felt in an active shooter situation was the use of paintball guns by the "bad guys" and the use of simunitions by the fire teams. Simunitions are similar to live rounds and use gunpowder to eject brass shells, firing rounds like a paintball.

The distractions of gunfire and casualties escalate over the course of the third day testing the reactions of the fire teams. All remain under the watchful eye of the NTOA instructors to be critiqued after completing the scenario.

"The course will prove itself extremely worthwhile and valuable if we ever have an active shooter situation on base," said Sergeant Grewe.

Sergeant Grewe and her colleagues say they learned quite a bit from this exercise and hope to work with the NTOA again soon.