Photo By Spc. Jeremy Raines | Soldiers from the 1st Maneuver Enhancement Brigade from Fort Polk, La. and Indiana...... read more read more
CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind. – Through the vast fields of corn and soy, under the bright Indiana sky, joint military, local, state, and other federal agencies came together here for exercise Vibrant Response 13-2. About 5,700 service members and civilians trained to respond to a catastrophic domestic incident.
The road from the highway is long but soon enough it comes into view. Like a scene from a horror movie, the devastation and wreckage seems all too real. This is the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, the site of a simulated nuclear disaster.
Vibrant Response is a major field training exercise designed to facilitate timely coordination and response between local, state and federal agencies to emergencies in the homeland to help the American people in their time of need.
“This [the MUTC] looks like the very first episode of the TV series ‘The Walking Dead’ with all of the signs hanging, fires blazing, and the appearance of absolute desertion,” said Sgt. Nicholas Erridge, a chemical, biological radiological and nuclear specialist from Portage, Ohio, with the 51st Civil Support Team, Michigan National Guard, Battle Creek, Mich. “This is a unique, realistic training environment.”
During the training exercise, the different agencies came together, with each one bringing its piece to the puzzle. One of the main military objectives was for service members to understand that this would not be a normal deployment environment.
“[The environment here] replicates an actual American town,” said Jay B. Norris, U.S. Northern Command, USARNORTH, observer controller/trainer division chief from Edinburg, Miss., “It has all the facilities of a typical small town, which is the type of environment they will be operating in. This mission is not like the typical mission in Afghanistan. This is urban. This is American ground.”
The U. S. Northern Command exercise, led by U.S. Army North, validated the coordination and integration of federal and state military capabilities to a catastrophic nuclear disaster in a major Midwestern city.
Along with the realistic scenery the MUTC, provided more than 180 civilian role players, whose job it was to elevate the level of realism for those participating in the exercise.
The civilian role players helped create a very realistic environment, said Sgt. Ronald Spous, of Desoto, Mo., a displaced civilian controller with the U.S. Army Reserve 1035th Support Maintenance Company out of Jefferson Barracks, Mo.
“What I am doing today is acting like I am near a blast site; I have minor neck and arm abrasions to the right arm and right side of my face,” said Ann Stevens, of Columbus, Ind., a role player with Mission Essential.
The civilian role players helped create a stressful environment in which service members have to react, said Spous. There efforts often evoked emotions in the responders that add to the realism of the exercise.
“We had one soldier actually start crying when helping a role player who had lost her husband in the simulated incident,” said Spous. “It was just too much, he had to wipe the tears away.”
For the observers watching the troops go through the exercise, that is one of the keys to the exercise, building the resiliency of the soldiers who would respond if this were a real event.
For many participants, Vibrant Response was merely a training exercise, for some it was a very real mission. Each day soldiers of Task Force Aviation maintained and operated 36 helicopters here.
“We do the maintenance for all of them,” said 1st Sgt. Joseph Wright, of Yorktown, Va., with D Co. 5-159th General Support Aviation Battalion, a U.S. Army Reserve unit out of Clearwater, Fla.
It was their job to face the tedious task of ensuring the aircraft is ready to fly, said Cpl. Katherine Malave, of Clearwater, Fla., a Black Hawk helicopter mechanic with 159th Aviation Brigade.
Throughout their mission, Malave and her team understood that attention to detail and technical proficiency were essential to the success of the overall mission.
“If there is something wrong that we didn’t find, that aircraft can fall right out of the sky,” said Malave. “It’s why you have to know what your doing.”
As the exercise progressed, civilians and military members appreciated the chance to work together with their counterparts.
“It’s great to be able to work with the people that you’d actually be working with if something real world happened,” Carlos Guerra, special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “If this were a real world situation, its good to get this practice in and get to meet the people we’d be working beside.”
As Vibrant Response came to an end, all personnel seemed to agree with the value of this kind of exercise.
“It’s very important to have an exercise like this,” said Spc. Jonathan Chestnutt, a decontamination team leader, of Faison, N.C., with 22d Chemical Battalion, 68th Chemical Company of Fort Hood, Texas. “You don’t get to work with a lot of these guys too often.”
“It’s important for us to be out here with them and helping them get better so they can be prepared for this kind of incident,” said Stevens. “It’s great. I love it.”
“We are Americans helping Americans,” said Malave. “We are here for whatever they may need us to do to help save lives.
Training with military and civilian first responders is paramount and critical to mission success, said Command Sgt. Maj. Hu Rhodes, senior enlisted adviser for United States Army North (Fifth Army)and Senior Enlisted Leader, Fort Sam Houston and Camp Bullis.
| Date Taken: | 08.16.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 08.16.2013 18:52 |
| Story ID: | 112139 |
| Location: | IN, US |
| Hometown: | CLEARWATER, FL, US |
| Hometown: | COLUMBUS, IN, US |
| Hometown: | EDINBURG, MS, US |
| Hometown: | PORTAGE, OH, US |
| Hometown: | YORKTOWN, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 152 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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