Photo By Lt. Col. Cory Angell | Pennsylvania National Guard troops work to treat simulated causalities in the Homeland...... read more read more
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ANNVILLE, Pa. - The 55th Armor Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division, conducted its exercise evaluation of the Homeland Response Force at Fort Indiantown Gap from Aug. 18-22. The HRF is a command and control (C2) element that supports a specialized response team called a CBERN (Chemical, Biological, Explosive, Radiological and Nuclear).
“The exercise evaluation is conducted every two to three years by the National Guard Bureau,” said Capt. Jim Cameron, HRF operations planner and 55th Brigade operations officer. “There is a simulation cell that feeds us injects that play out a scenario but generally what we will deal with is some sort of a search and extraction mission and a collapsed structure.”
“In preparation for this we have done some individual and collective training,” said Lt. Col. Bill Start, HRF officer in charge. “The Soldiers and Airmen on the HRF have to complete classes in the Incident Command System depending on their duty positions.”
According to FEMA’s website, the Incident Command System is a systematic tool used for command and control that is common to all who may respond to an incident under the National Incident Management system. It allows for civilian responders, government entities and the military to have a common understanding in how to respond to an incident.
“This exercise has one CERFP actually on the ground,” said Jerry McGhee, Joint Interagency and Education Center, who are acting as the incident command as well as observers, controllers and trainers. “In the scenario the 55th Brigade exercise includes the CERFP on the ground and three others that are notional.”
McGhee said that this exercise was important, not only to validate the brigade’s ability to perform its mission, but also for the Soldiers and Airmen in the CERFP.
“You have about 197 Soldiers and Airmen in a CERFP and many of them are not full-time,” said McGhee. “They have other jobs they do throughout the year so this is a good chance for them to learn and reinforce what they have already learned.”
McGhee said the exercise will ensure that Pennsylvania’s HRF is fully capable to respond to a complex incident or incidents that involve basic medical care, decontamination and collapsed structure search and recovery.
“The HRF overall is an excellent asset that can be scaled to fit a response need if the governor should ever need the capability,” said McGhee. “It can be used for natural disasters as well as some sort of hostile action scenario.”
| Date Taken: | 08.22.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 08.22.2014 14:02 |
| Story ID: | 140157 |
| Location: | ANNVILLE, PA, US |
| Web Views: | 385 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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