MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, partnered with Headquarters Marine Corps and state and county agencies, conducted its annual force protection exercise here Aug. 24 - 26.More than 300 Marines, sailors, emergency personnel and evaluation staff participated in Vector West.Vector West is a force protection exercise designed to exercise the base force protection plan from an all hazards approach to incident response.This years exercise allowed the base to exercise the systems and procedures used by the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton Command Center and WMD Incident Response Team. The HIRT is composed of fire and emergency services, explosive ordnance disposal, the Provost Marshall’s Office and Naval Hospital. The event also included a command post exercise for the base’s Crisis Action Team which emphasized the CAT’s ability to support the incident commander as well as coordinate with higher headquarters and local emergency agencies.“Essentially, the CPX is a crisis response exercise that provides real time crisis management while strengthening staff relationships,” said Charles. G. Chase, the force protec- tion planner for operations and training.“Vector West allowed for the execution of plans and procedures to identify personnel, equipment and procedural shortfalls,” said Chase.This year’s scenario focused on the base’s response to a Chemical, Biological, Radio-logical, Nuclear incident after a bus was hijacked and ran the San Luis Ray gate. Shortly thereafter, the bus exploded in the 16 Area near Mainside and released an undetermined chemical blister agent.The explosion left victims scattered across the pavement. Volunteers from the Naval Hospital acted as victims complete with a variety of associated injuries. The IRT as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation were called to the scene.“We go through a great deal of effort to ensure the role players put their heart and soul into the exercise,” said Brig. Gen. Michael R. Lehnert, the base commanding general.“I am required, as a base commander, to ensure all of our emergency staff are properly trained in a wide variety of emergencies,” he said. “The ultimate goal is to not only protect the base, but to ensure the security of the people in the surrounding communities as well,” said Lehnert.“We try to make this as real as possible,” said Lehnert.The Plans, Policies and Operations Department, Head-quarters Marine Corps provided funds and personnel for the three-day exercise.Randy Smith, head of the Mission Assurance Branch, was here to evaluate the exercise.“We support all (Marine Corps) installations in the area of force protection related issues. One of the ways we do this is to provide a professional company to assist in developing and executing well-planned, base-wide exercises that test the installations response plans, particularly in the area of WMD response,” he said.Smith says these exercises always produce results…positive or negative.“These exercises are always successful, because the objective is to test an installation's current capabilities and allow them to learn from mistakes that are made in practice as opposed to the real event,” said Smith.