Bomb detection dogs and emergency vehicles were poised and ready when a suspicious package was found in the mailroom early Friday morning at NAS Whiting Field.
The package turned out to be nothing more than just ‘suspicious,’ but the base still underwent precautions—like searching people entering and leaving base—until nearly noon.
“Unfortunately, our security protocol requires that we have certain procedures that we have to follow that make it look worse than it really is,†says Lori Aprilliano, a public affairs officer at Whiting Field. “Our buildings have to be cleared of personnel. Again, we have to wait for the bomb detection to dog to come up from NAS Pensacola.â€
That can take nearly an hour. The contents of the suspicious package were turned over to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and are still unknown. Whiting Field is the primary base for training Navy and Marine helicopter pilots.
Activities on the base returned to normal before noon.