Media Advisory

HONOLULU -- The U.S. Coast Guard, Honolulu Fire Department, and Honolulu Ocean Safety Division are scheduled to conduct a two-day, multi-agency search, rescue and communication training exercise at Kapiolani Park Monday and along the reef at Diamond Head Wednesday.

The goal of this drill is for all partners involved to gain a better understanding of mass rescue operations and to make first responders more prepared to mutually react to any kind of disaster in Hawaii's waters. The agency partners will test and evaluate inter-agency communications and response plans for this quarterly simulated exercise.

"The knowledge we gain from this exercise will improve our coordinated operations and help keep the Pacific safe for all mariners," said Lt. James Garland, a Sector Honolulu response division representative. “This opportunity is important to both the Coast Guard and its partner agencies, as it allows each agency to interact with one another in a realistic rescue scenario.”

This full-scale exercise will include the deployment of many resources from both county and federal agencies. All agencies will conduct the communications check portion of the event Monday morning at Kapiolani Park in preparation for the large-scale event Wednesday off the reef of Diamond Head. The exercise will last six hours each day.

The Coast Guard will issue a broadcast to mariners during the drill to keep mariners in the area informed during the exercise. During the drill, the Coast Guard will communicate on VHF-FM channel 23A and all transmissions will include the phrase, "This is a drill, this is a drill." No transmissions related to the drill will be made on the maritime distress VHF-FM channel 16.

Please contact the Sector Honolulu command center at 808-842-2600 for any questions about the drill.

For any media inquiries regarding this release, please contact:

Petty Officer 3rd Class Anthony Soto, 14th Coast Guard District External Affairs, at 808-535-3230;

Capt. Terry Seelig, the Honolulu Fire Department public affairs officer, at 808-478-7703;

Bryan Cheplic, the Hawaii and Honolulu City and County Emergency Services public information officer, at 808-221-8752.