Photo By Sgt. Brandon Anderson | Sgt. Matthew King, an military police officer assigned to the 381st Military Police...... read more read more
MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, Ind. - Soldiers of the 381st Military Police Company headquartered at Plymouth, Indiana, participated in the Vibrant Response 14 training exercise held at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center on Aug. 3.
The MPs recently assumed the Army National Guard's quick reaction mission. The mission entails responding to natural disasters like flooding and tornadoes. In addition to the natural disaster portion, they would also provide support for a chemical, biological, radioactive and nuclear disaster, such as they scenario being played out in MUTC.
Army 1st Lt. Jeff Merritt, the company commander of the 381st MP Company, said that this environment is providing them with a realistic training environment that is hard to replicate.
“This place is unreal,” said Merritt. “Considering how this whole place was once a functioning facility, this is probably the best place for my unit to get a feel for what we'd encounter during a real-life nuclear attack.”
Echoing the sentiments of Merritt, Spc. Meghan Finn, an MP assigned to the 381st, said that this was her second time attending Vibrant Response, and the site is still a lot to take in.
“I really like the training environment here,” said Finn. “It definitely gives us a real-life scenario, and I think that it'll better prepare us to respond if an incident like a nuclear attack were to occur.”
Merritt said along with the scenario based mission they've been assigned with conducting traffic control points and entry control points, they also have a mission to monitor and account for the units driving from forward operating bases in the area surrounding MUTC.
“It's our job to monitor the other elements as they arrive in the morning, and to get accountability of them,” said Merritt.
Merritt, whose full-time job in the civilian sector is a police officer, says that his unit is comprised of more than 40 Soldiers, with 50 percent or more of them having deployed to Afghanistan.
“This is great chance for some of the more seasoned Soldiers in our unit to pass on the lessons that they learned while deployed as well as mentor Soldiers new to the unit,” said Merritt.
The unit arrived at MUTC four days prior to the start of the exercise, and have been using the time to train on some of the common tasks they would encounter if they were activated as the quick reaction force.
“We've been practicing looking for survivors, with Soldiers from our unit going house-to-house to find injured people and making sure that we're fully competent in our tasks,” said Merritt.
Coming away from this exercise, Merritt says they will be better prepared as a unit to handle the mission they've been assigned to for the next two years.
“During our monthly meetings at the armory we focus on these types of tasks,” said Merritt. “Most of us only live an hour or so away from the armory, so it gives us a pretty good response time if we're needed.”
Finn said the time spent here is well worth it as it helps build unit cohesion.
“The chain of command is great, and we're a really tight-knit unit,” said Finn. “Our command is very competent and we take their guidance to heart and implement it.”
Finn said taking all those things into consideration, and the training environment at MUTC, she feels confident that she and the unit will be more than capable of handling the mission they've been assigned.
“Whether it be here or wherever we're needed as the National Guard Response Force, we'll be ready,” said Finn .
| Date Taken: | 08.03.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 08.03.2014 13:57 |
| Story ID: | 138138 |
| Location: | MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, IN, US |
| Web Views: | 579 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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