Battalion gets high marks for force protection plan

***image1***The 415th Base Support Battalion received an excellent rating for their force protection plan by the recent Joint Staff Integrated Vulnerability Assessment conducted by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Department of Defense, Washington, D.C.
“The bottom line is rest assured – we have an excellent program,” said Henry Ka’aihue, anti-terrorism and force protection officer, 415th BSB.
The agency evaluated the 415th BSB’s Force Protection and Crisis Management Program May 11 to 20. They assessed the battalion’s ability to identify threat, preventive measures to counter threats, response capabilities, and recovery and consequence management.
“The team verified that we have an excellent program, and we have all the anti-terrorism tools to prevent, respond and recover,” said Mr. Ka’aihue.
In fact, the results were so good the team plans to use the battalion’s force protection plan as an example for overseas and stateside military installations, said Mr. Ka’aihue.
The plan has also been named as a DOD Best Practice, according to Maj. David Tiedemann, operations officer, 415th BSB Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security. A Best Practice highlights a superior method or innovative practice contributing to improved performance of a process.
Mr. Ka’aihue said the battalion’s force protection plan is a continuous cycle of having systems and procedures in place to “prevent the bad guy from coming in.” The battalion has made several force protection changes and improvements during the past year.
Notably, construction started on several KMC Army installation gates this year, and plans have been finalized for construction on the rest of the access control points. Each gate is designed to improve pass control, ensuring only drivers with proper identification can enter. All Army installations will have at least one large-vehicle search area and a turn-around area for trucks and vehicles without proper identification.
Also new to the community is the portable Large Vehicle Inspection System, which can X-ray large trucks, and several explosive detectors that are also portable.
The battalion’s plan also includes support from the 435th Air Base Wing force protection agencies, the 569th Security Forces Squadron and the City of Kaiserslautern’s Fire Department.
“Concerning force protection, the Air Force and host nation always plays an important and vital role with us,” said Mr. Ka’aihue. “We are only successful because of this teamwork.
“Here in the KMC, we are a team, and if I may say so, a darn good team.”