Photo By Sgt. Victor Ayala | A fog falls over Joint Task Force Civil Support's Task Force Operations during the...... read more read more
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When the effects of a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explosive incident become too much for local and state agencies to handle alone, the Secretary of Defense can authorize U.S. Northern Command to deploy the CBRNE Consequence Man-agement Response Force to support the recovery effort. It's that contingency Joint Task Force Civil Support, the CCMRF's command and control element, and more than 900 service members, Department of Defense civilians, and contractors with the CCMRF are preparing for during the exercise, Vibrant Re-sponse 09, at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., Aug 1-9.
Vibrant Response 09 is one of the many exercises designed to test JTF-CS's and the CCMRF's ability to perform their mission of saving lives, pre-venting injury and providing temporary critical support. The exercise is de-signed to simulate a nuclear detonation on American soil and take JTF-CS and CCMRF step by step through the process of deploying to and supporting affected communities. The image of a nuclear blast on a dramatized news-cast gave the exercise a sobering start.
"Everyone was kind of silent. You could tell that everyone was reflect-ing on how serious this all is. During an exercise, it can be hard to focus on the reality," said Lt. Col. Tim Tellega, an interagency liaison officer for JTF-CS. "This was potent realism."
From the first news of the blast to the moment the affected communi-ties are back on their feet, JTF-CS and the CCMRF will be implementing and evaluating their processes and standard operating procedures to ensure they're ready to handle a real-world crisis, said Richard Vollman, Joint Move-ment Planner for JTF-CS.
"As in the real world, we're being evaluated on the timeliness and ef-fectiveness of the response we give to the affected local and state govern-ment," Vollman said.
JTF-CS coordinates its response by mission assignments given by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. These mission assignments are created based on the specific needs of the state and are only given after the governor has made a formal request to the President.
The CCMRF always trains for realism, said Vollman, but Vibrant Response 09 is special.
"This by far is the largest, most integrated exercise that I've been involved in with JTF-CS," Vollman said. "We have federal and state officials participating. We have all branches of service represented. We have the actual task forces and units that would provide us support."
It's this realistic training environment that is already making a difference in the way JTF-CS and the CCMRF task forces are operating for the better, Tellega said.
"We're refining our processes," he said. "We can sit and talk about it on paper all day long, but it's actually going through the motions that improves us."
For the nine days from Aug. 1-9, the Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, Sailors and civilians of the CCMRF will be hard at work in preparation for the unthinkable, hoping the call never comes, but ready if it does.
| Date Taken: | 08.08.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 08.08.2009 14:44 |
| Story ID: | 37291 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 548 |
| Downloads: | 437 |
This work, JTF-CS takes on training at Vibrant Response 09, by SGT Victor Ayala, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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