Photo By Staff Sgt. Caitlyn Byrne | Various U.S. military leaders and distinguished guests to the Camp Atterbury Joint...... read more read more
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CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind. – Vibrant Response 14, the nation’s premiere disaster relief training mission that takes place here and at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Butlerville, Indiana, has come to an end.
“Vibrant Response 14 is a combination of active, reserve and civilian components that come together to form a unified, joint response to a large catastrophic event,” explained Maj. Gen. Charles Gailes, a Huntsville, Alabama native and exercise director of VR 14. “The real task at hand was how do we give support to those states and communities that have been affected.”
The exercise is split into two different iterations with two different missions based on the same scenario – a simulated nuclear attack in a major metropolitan area somewhere in the United States.
The first half of the exercise, which took place July 21-27, focused primarily on training the Defense Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) response team, which deals with the initial response to a crisis, including helping displaced citizens and starting investigations into who, or what, caused the catastrophes.
“I feel like we’ve been pretty effective in training our Soldiers and federal first responders to do their mission and to be confirmed to do it for another year,” said Gailes.
In total, agencies from more than 28 states and territories participated in the exercise.
“We had a wide range of personnel and capabilities that were brought to Indiana,” said Gailes. “As we get further and further along, we bring in more partners and willing-participants for the exercise including the state of Indiana and FEMA’s regional response coordination center.”
This year also marked the first time the Indiana Department of Homeland Security participated in the multi-agency exercise alongside the Department of Defense (DOD), FEMA, National Technical, Nuclear Forensics (NTNF) Task Force, and the FBI.
“Partnering with the DOD, the National Guard, the state emergency management agencies and learning how we all operate and how we communicate is essential,” said Gailes, “because if this ever actually happened, it would be paramount that we have a substantial amount of ground work covered as well as experience that we can build on.”
The second half of the exercise, which began on Aug. 1 and concluded on Aug. 7, focused on the Command and Control CBRNE Response Elements (C2CRE-A and C2CRE-B), which are essential to the long term response and assisting the local population in gaining a sense of normalcy.
The DOD’s C2CRE response force is a 1,500 person strong element designed to provide lifesaving measures to a ‘worst-case scenario’ event that occurs on the American home front in the most expedient fashion possible. The DOD has two C2CREs at its disposal. C2CRE-A, Task Force 76, is made up of reserve units from around the nation and C2CRE-B, Task Force 46, is made up of National Guard units. The units are on this mission for one to two years before cycling off.
Once they have arrived on the scene, the task force will monitor situational awareness and assist first responders in alleviating human suffering. Gailes noted that the main focus and duty of the task forces is to be the nation’s secondary response force to any catastrophic, man-made, domestic disaster.
As with any situation involving the homeland, the military gets its marching orders from a civilian authority.
“We are always in support,” said Gailes.
As part of VR14 both Task Force 46 and 76 are rehearsing their response capabilities.
“Task Force 76 is going to handle chemical, biological and nuclear responses. We are one of the three elements in the C2CRE enterprise,” said Sgt. Maj. William Powers, 302nd Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, an Army Reserve unit from Chicopee, Mass. The Boston native is also the Task Force 76 mobilized operations sergeant major.
As for aesthetic authenticity, rubble piles were carefully set up in training sites in both Camp Atterbury and the MUTC to make the venues as challenging as possible to control the search and recovery training. Several very realistic mannequins were placed throughout the rubble piles, which the search and recovery teams had to cut and dig their way to.
Mannequins, however, were not the only way that the units interacted with mock victims. More than 100 role players were hired in order to create the feeling of a real city in distress. “I find it difficult to believe that there is anyplace that can better simulate that environment [a nuclear detonation in a heavily populated area] than here,” said Gailes.
The role players were civilians of all ages who were had special effects make-up applied to them in order to act as though they were injured and in need of help.
The role players added an element of realism on top of the destroyed buildings; fire, flame and water effects; and roads blocked by tons of overturned vehicles and other rubble.
Medical and decontamination units from Mobile, Alabama, and Tampa, Florida ran decon stations on site and airlifted the “worst” of the mock victims. Victims were even hoisted from the tops of buildings in order to give helicopter MEDEVAC units practice in case the time comes for them to put their skills to work.
The exercise focused on Department of Defense support of civil authorities in a consequence management role. All of these elements came together to provide a whole-of-government response to a disaster, said Gailes. The C2CRE is part of DoD’s scalable response capability to assist civilian responders in saving lives, relieving human suffering and mitigating great property damage in response to a catastrophic CBRN incident.
As Vibrant Response 14 concluded, there was evidence that the annual training exercise is evolving and improving each year and as the nation’s premier homeland response exercise, VR 14 is a training exercise that continues to provide a plethora of learning experiences for all participants involved.
Gailes remarked, “We learn a lot from our state and local counterparts, and they also learn a lot about our federal capabilities as well.”
| Date Taken: | 08.07.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 08.07.2014 12:25 |
| Story ID: | 138573 |
| Location: | CAMP ATTERBURY, IN, US |
| Web Views: | 632 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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