CHEYENNE (TNS) — Volunteers on F.E. Warren Air Force Base were dressed with fake wounds Thursday morning, preparing to be part of an active shooter drill.

The drills are designed to prepare forces for the worst-case scenarios — in this case, an active shooter holing himself up in a theater on base.

These semiannual shooter exercises ensure that security forces and the rest of wing personnel are prepared, according to 90th Missile Wing Public Affairs Chief of Media Relations Glenn Robertson.

“We hope that these types of events never happen, but we’re going to do everything in our power to be prepared,” Robertson said.

“If it ever does, there’s no excuse to not be prepared.”

At least 100 people participated in Thursday’s event, between responding units, individuals performing the role of victim and shooter, inspectors and other personnel. When an exercise like this takes place, personnel all across the installation have responsibilities and roles to play during the exercise, Robertson said.

The drill began with the “shooter” causing a scene at the on-base health clinic before going to the movie theater, where military security servicemen from the Tactical Response Force and security forces from the 90th Security Forces Squadron lined up at the beginning of the drill to trade their service weapons for bright blue training weapons.

While this step would never transpire in a real emergency, these so-called “exercise-isms” are inserted into the drill to ensure safety. After receiving their training weapons, security forces were ready to address the simulated active shooter scenario, clearing the theater and rescuing injured “civilians.”

Tanner Confair of the 790th Military Security Forces Squadron volunteered to be one of the many “moulage,” a term for volunteers with fake injuries applied to their body, making them appear as if they’ve been shot, scraped or, in Confair’s case, punched in the face.

Volunteers lay in anguish on the ground, screaming for help, as security forces cleared the scene and pulled them from the theater. “I thought it’d be an interesting opportunity to be able to see how this stuff works and everything,” Confair said.

The point of the drill is to ensure safety through repetition, Confair said, ensuring that in a real-life scenario, the forces would be capable of addressing the shooter and helping the injured.

This drill isn’t only for security forces, but medical ones, as well. Medics and firefighters from the F.E. Warren Fire Department participated in simulating triage efforts following the active shooter incident.

“Because we don’t have paramedics specifically on base, several members of our fire team are EMS trained,” Robertson said.

“They’re going to kind of fill that gap.”

In the final step of the drill, personnel from the 90th Medical Group arrived on scene to provide medical support and to declare individuals as (simulated) deceased, determine the initial medical care needs and initiate the transfer of individuals to local medical facilities.

No exercise is perfect. During Thursday’s drill, some individuals made minor mistakes, but having the opportunity to correct those mistakes is the purpose, Robertson said.

Thursday’s drill was considered a success.

“I mean, that’s exactly why we do some of these things,” Robertson said. “Mistakes are going to be made, but the more times that we go through the motions and practice these types of events, the fewer mistakes that we can expect in the future.”

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