MILTON — U.S. Fleet Forces Command, headquartered in Norfolk, and Commander, Navy Installations Command based in Washington, D.C., are conducting Hurricane Exercise/Citadel Gale 2019 through April 26.
This annual exercise prepares the U.S. Navy to respond to adverse weather conditions in U.S. coastal regions and maintain the ability to deploy forces under the most severe weather conditions. It also tests the response times for accounting for Sailors, Department of the Navy civilians and families in the affected regions through the Navy Family Accountability and Assessment System.
HURREX/CG 19 will involve a simulated storm system developing and intensifying to hurricane strength, threatening the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico. All Navy commands at Naval District Washington, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic and Navy Region Southeast will participate by reviewing and exercising heavy weather instructions procedures.
There will be no Navy ship movements associated with HURREX/CG 19.
Naval Air Station Whiting Field in Milton will be participating in the hurricane preparedness exercise throughout the two weeks to ensure the base and tenants are ready for the upcoming hurricane season. For more information about HURREX/CG 19, contact the NAS Whiting Field public affairs office at (850) 623-7341.
Naval Air Station Whiting Field, home of Training Air Wing FIVE, is the backbone of Naval Aviation Training, supporting approximately 60 percent of all primary fixed-wing flight training and 100 percent of all advanced helicopter pilot training for the Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps. NAS Whiting Field is the busiest aviation complex in the world with more than one million flight operations flown at the installation annually. It is comprised of two main airfields and 12 Navy Outlying Landing Fields across four counties in Southeast Alabama and Northwest Florida.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Whiting Field participates in Navy-wide hurricane exercise