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    New England Guardsmen hone security skills

    New England Guardsmen hone security skills

    Courtesy Photo | Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Massachusetts provide roughly 200 Air and Army...... read more read more

    NEWPORT, RI, UNITED STATES

    03.29.2014

    Story by Sgt. Angela Parady 

    121st Public Affairs Detachment

    NEWPORT, R.I. - “A chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high yield explosive (CBRNE) enhanced response force package, is now a part of our homeland defense structure. We are there to help support the governor and local authorities when bad things happen,” said Maj. Richard Hallowell, executive officer for the 521st Troop Command Battalion, Maine Army National Guard.

    Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Massachusetts provide roughly 200 Air and Army National Guardsmen who are prepared to provide assistance to local authorities in case of a catastrophic event, such as a terrorist attack. The teams are designed to execute mass decontamination processes, medical triage, and provide governments and local authorities with assets they don’t have access to.

    In March, this CERF-P met with the Rhode Island Coast Guard to expand the response team’s readiness by exposing them to maritime incidents. Until this event, the teams were more focused on large crowd scenario, structural collapses and events such as the Super Bowl or the Boston Marathon, where a terrorist attack would have devastating effects. Their main goal is to keep people safe by controlling any potential for threat.

    The CERF-P team was directed to focus on maritime missions as well by the adjutant general of Maine who requested this team be prepared to handle such incidents to protect the New England coastline.

    For the March exercise, the units received notification of a vessel approaching the Newport Naval Station with sick immigrants and crew members aboard. Within six hours, a command and control element from Maine, decontamination and medical units from New Hampshire, and a decontamination and search and extraction team from Rhode Island were deployed to the scene. The CERF-P worked with the Rhode Island Civil Support Team to determine what was causing the illnesses, and how to contain the threat.

    “The scenario was a group of immigrants from Haiti were coming across the ocean, and they got sick,” said Sgt. Andrew Jensen, an operations noncommissioned officer for the 521. “The crew members were sick. We were notified and tasked with trying to figure out what was wrong with them. The CST identified the cause to be the plague, and advised us on how to deal with it.
    Our mission was then to extract the people, decontaminate them, and then medically treat them if we can.” The teams used pulley systems and additional man power to pull out the ROTC cadets who were role-playing for the day.

    “This is just another way we have been able to improve our training as we have become more adept,” said Jensen, who lives in Brewer. “Training has become more and more realistic. We have a better idea now of what to expect for hazards, how different systems interact with each other. When this first came out, no one had done this sort of stuff before. So when we were building the earlier scenarios, they weren't always very realistic.
    As we have come to understand more about the behaviors of the chemicals, and the casualties, we can work on responding appropriately to both. With casualties, we can coach them now to help make better training. Using role players makes it harder for the search and extraction teams. Pulling out a mannequin is different than pulling out a screaming person who doesn't know who you are or why you are touching them.”

    The teams train on their own to to make sure they are prepared to respond. Some teams have on the job training in hospitals; others work in rubble piles with jackhammers and pulley systems, using dummies as victims. Quarterly, they meet up to test the unit as a whole in a cumulative scenario. In November, they supported Vigilant Guard, the exercise that tested the capabilities of the Maine Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, and local and state first responders. One of the scenarios presented in Vigilant Guard was a collapsed ice arena that was discovered to be leaking hazardous material. They had to safely remove people from the rubble, while also working with hazmat, setting up decontamination stations, and medical tents.

    Hallowell, who lives in Caribou, said that the members of his team traditionally train in a CBRN environment, so they are prepared to gear up in their suit and mask, and handle the extraction of casualties, decontamination processes and medical triage in any event. On a smaller level, the search and extraction teams can also be called out for smaller missions, such as a lost hunter.

    “This happens a lot in Maine, in New England,” he said. “You can use us to go out and search. We wouldn't necessarily need a decontamination team, so we could spend more efforts on the search and rescue element. We can also use our communication assets and command resources to help local first responders set up their command sections in actual emergencies.”

    Mostly, these teams help improve the overall security of the United States. They are prepared to respond quickly to any number of events, working with local first responders and governments to protect the communities they live and work in.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 03.29.2014
    Date Posted: 04.22.2014 09:24
    Story ID: 127045
    Location: NEWPORT, RI, US
    Hometown: BREWER, ME, US
    Hometown: CARIBOU, ME, US

    Web Views: 98
    Downloads: 0

    PUBLIC DOMAIN