Dozens of personnel from agencies across the emergency response spectrum gathered at the Samoa Airfield on Wednesday morning to kick off two days of training in an effort to provide better mutual aid coordination in the time of an actual emergency. Personnel from local fire departments, state and federal parks, the state Office of Emergency Services, Cal Fire and the Coast Guard gathered at the airfield to practice over-land and over-water rescue techniques and to establish communications protocols to be used in the event of an emergency. The planning for the exercise began three months ago and it gives the agencies involved a chance to work together in a training environment instead of trying to coordinate at the scene of an actual emergency.