New inspection gate to open

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jeff Parkinson
  • 1st Special Operations Wing Public Affairs
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla --  The Commercial Vehicle Inspection Area is scheduled to be moved to the eastside of base located near Gator Lakes Golf course, off of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., beginning Sept. 2, 2014, here.

Several factors drove base leadership's decision to build this new facility.

"This project was put into effect to meet Anti-Terrorism and Force protection requirements mandated by several Air Force and [Department of Defense] directives and to ensure public safety and security," said Joseph Farinash, 1st Special Operations Security Forces Squadron operations officer. "With the current location of the vehicle search area, the base population and certain resources are extremely vulnerable if something were to happen."

Other benefits of the new CVIA include the elimination of commercial traffic entering the front gate.

"By reducing these numbers, folks should flow more smoothly into the base," said Daniel Wilcoxen, 1st Special Operations Civil Engineer Squadron civil engineer. "With the current inspection area, vehicles turning into base from the west are required to cross over multiple lanes to reach the CVIA, which at times creates congestion; which will be eliminated with the new location of the inspection area."

The 1st SOSFS and 1st SOCES want to emphasize to base personnel that personally owned vehicles and routine traffic will not be allowed to enter the base using this gate; however drivers may exit through the gate during operating hours.

The gate will be open Monday through Friday between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., to all commercial and delivery vehicles, contractors and day laborers.

After hours and weekend deliveries will report to the CVIA, dial (850) 884-7777 and wait for a 1st SOSFS personnel to respond.

All delivery employees will undergo a fitness determination (background check).

"The [new] CVIA might seem inconvenient to some but it's a huge leap from a safety and security standpoint," said Farinash. "The vetting process being put into place combined with the better equipped vehicle search capability will drastically decrease security vulnerabilities."

For faster entry to the base, personnel with a reoccurring need to come on and off Hurlburt Field can receive a six-month pass once a background check is complete.

"There are certain drivers who might have met previous fitness determination standards during the background checks but might not meet the new rigorous standards," he added. "So please prepare for the possibility that some of [the bases] long time delivery personnel may be denied entry."