Late morning, a car was at the Hatfield Gate being searched by security personnel. Military working dog teams from the 947th Military Police Detachment were assisting searches when one of the dogs gave the indication of a potential presence of explosive material. As is standard procedure, a second dog was brought in to confirm.

‘‘The first dog showed interest, and the second dog verified in the same location, which confirmed to us the potential of an explosive device,” said Lt. Col. Kenneth Sheppard, director of emergency services for JBM-HH. ‘‘We did not see anything visible, but we took the necessary protocols to ensure the safety of the installation.”

The next step included calling the 55th Ordnance Company (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), to survey the scene and determine the threat. While waiting for the 55th to execute their search, directorates around JBM-HH were spurred into action.

The Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security Installation Operations Center was notified as was Col. Carl R. Coffman Jr., JBM-HH commander.

‘‘Every directorate has a process for a situation like this,” said Daniel Coyne, the assistant director of the IOC.

These processes included directing traffic away from Hatfield Gate to other gates around the installation.

JBM-HH Police Chief William Johnson, the incident commander, was able to relay information from the scene to the IOC so that the crisis action team was able to keep updated and log the situation as it developed.

Once the EOD personnel were equipped with the proper protective gear, they began their investigation.

‘‘Our role is to clear any potential hazard that might be there after the dogs [indicate] something could be there,” said Capt. Joseph Stalnaker, commander of the 55th. ‘‘We need to confirm that something is or isn’t a threat. If it is, we need to make sure it harms as few people as possible, and damages as little as possible.”

The EOD gets as much information as they can from the people already on scene, and are briefed as much as possible on the way, Stalnaker said.

‘‘The EOD operator, using his years of experience, was able to investigate the scene and clear it,” Stalnaker said.

Once the EOD unit completed their search and found no explosive device, the scene was handed back over to JBM-HH personnel.

‘‘After the EOD completed their search of the vehicle and found no explosive device, we brought a dog up to check again,” Sheppard said. ‘‘The dog did not detect anything, and we were able to make the determination that there was no threat of explosives. These are highly trained dogs that can detect even trace amounts [of suspicious material].”

Within a couple of hours, the scene was cleared, and traffic was able to resume normally through Hatfield Gate.

Directorates conduct their own reviews after the fact to determine the effectiveness of their efforts. DPTMS performs a Joint Base-wide after-action review in order to make sure notifications were done correctly and other issues were properly handled.

Sheppard and DES did their own review, and found mostly positive results, despite a very brief mix-up that led to the entire post being locked down.

‘‘It was a bit of miscommunication, but I’m glad we went to the more stringent measure in that case, because our reaction was more on the safe side,” Sheppard said.

Sheppard also acknowledged the rapid support from Arlington County Police, crediting them with being ‘‘on scene immediately directing traffic off of our access roads, making sure there wasn’t traffic backed up around the gate. They did an outstanding job.”

Overall, even though the situation turned out to be no threat to the installation, the incident showed the strength of JBM-HH and the surrounding community in handling a crisis. Though it turned out OK, it provided a good measuring stick for any future incidents.

‘‘The directorates worked well together,” Sheppard said. ‘‘The communication was good across the board, which is key in any sort of incident like this.”