7.3 Homeland Security Exercise Program

WHO? The Department of Homeland Security.

WHAT? Homeland Security and Exercise Evaluation Program.

WHEN? Is an essential part of the Preparedness Cycle for validating Emergency Operation Plans.

WHERE? EOPs are developed by First Responders to prepare for local community disasters.

WHY? Because the best time to prepare for disaster is before disaster strikes.

The best time to prepare for disaster is before disaster strikes. That’s why DHS advocates the Preparedness Cycle, a continuous process of Planning, Equipping, Training, Exercising, and Evaluation, described in CPG 101, the DHS Comprehensive Preparedness Guide. The Preparedness Cycle is important to creating Emergency Operation Plans. First Responders develop EOPs for disaster scenarios likely to affect their community. But how do you know if you’re plan is right? Best not wait for a disaster to find out, otherwise you will certainly have a disaster. No, the best way to validate your plan is to test it, and that’s what the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program is all about. HSEEP provides a blueprint for planning and conducting different types of exercises. HSEEP offers two different types of exercises, 1) discussion-based, and 2) operations-based. Discussion-based exercises are best for learning new concepts, exploring different approaches, and evaluating strategies. Operations-based exercises are best for validating procedures, testing equipment, and building relationships. As the saying goes, “you don’t want to trade business cards at the scene of a disaster”. In other words, it helps to know ahead of time who you’ll be working with in a disaster. Discussion-based exercises include Seminars, Workshops, Tabletops, and Games.

• Seminars are basically a teaching forum for learning something new;

• Workshops provide a means for solving problems in a group;

• Tabletops are a relatively inexpensive way for evaluating new plans;

• And Games are a relatively inexpensive way for evaluating decision processes.

Operations-based exercise include Drills, Functional Exercises, and Full-Scale Exercises.

• Drills test the ability of personnel to execute specific procedures;

• Functional Exercises test the ability of personnel to execute specific plans;

• Full-Scale Exercises test the ability of personnel and their equipment to execute specific plans.

HSEEP also offers a standard process to help you plan and execute your exercise. After you pick your team, HSEEP guides you through a series of Planning Meetings to address progressively more details and build exercise documents:

• The Concept & Objectives Meeting starts by setting the exercise schedule and objectives;

• The Initial Planning Meeting generally selects the scenario and results in the Exercise Plan;

• The Midterm Planning Meeting decides logistics, and results in Exercise Evaluation Guides;

• And the Final Planning Meeting reviews exercise preparations and makes any last adjustments.

These planning meetings provide a systematic means for preparing for your exercise. At the conclusion, you should have a complete Situation Manual or Exercise Plan detailing everything about the exercise to keep everybody in-sync. Exercise Evaluation Guides are the grade books that will be used to write the final After Action Report. As Bill Gates said, “we learn more from failure than success”; failure is the hallmark of a good exercise.