Photo By Sgt. Suzanne Carter | Service members and their families visit the Joint Task Force 71 display area at the...... read more read more
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - A quiet hum from his mask and a plastic crinkling sound preceded U.S. Army Sgt. Abren Mejia's every step as he demonstrated the decontamination process in the 436th Chemical Company Detachment's mobile decontamination trailer. The trailer, along with extraction equipment and a medical triage tent, composed the Joint Task Force 71 practical display at the 52nd annual National Guard Association of Texas Conference in Corpus Christi March 25-27.
Mejia and Spc. Candido Godines both donned the full decontamination suits to demonstrate how they would strip, wash and scan people for contaminants during a chemical, biological, radioactive, nuclear or high-yield explosive incident.
JTF-71 provided the display to broaden understanding of and support for the 6th CBRNE Enhanced Response Force Package's mission within the Homeland Response Force.
"A lot of the Guard doesn't know what we do," said Capt. Michael Miller, commander for the 836th Engineer Company. "We carry both our green mission, [that is], our Army mission, and the civilian side. They don't understand that, so in order to get to that point, we need to put out the word."
The 836th Engineers displayed an array of tools and other equipment they use to search for and extract victims during an incident. In addition to the equipment on display, an illustrated storyboard explained how the HRF works and defined the JTF-71 region of response.
"We can do all types of mass-casualty incidents, whether they are man-made incidents or natural disaster incidents," said Sgt. 1st Class Carlos Quintanilla of the 436th Chemical Company Detachment in Austin. "We're hoping that when people come over here that they know that we're out there and that they know what we can do for them in a civilian role."
To meet the demands of the HRF, JTF-71 Army and Air Force units under the 6th CERFP receive nearly 2,000 hours of training to react to any incident that may result in mass casualties. The HRF training also enables JTF-71 to assume command and control over scheduled and planned events such as last year's National Guard Association of the United States Conference in Austin, Texas.
"We're not simply a reactive force," Quintanilla said. "We're a proactive force, such as missions like the Super Bowl 45. We stayed at Super Bowl 45 in case there was an incident."
Senior Airman Larry Deluna and a small team from the Air National Guard's 149th Small Portable Expeditionary Aeromedical Rapid Response set up a bright yellow tent filled with mobile medical equipment. The 149th SPEARR provides medical triage for victims after the 836th Engineers extracts them and the 436th Chemical Company decontaminates them.
"We want to show the people here what we do as a team," Deluna said. "They don't know what we do."
The JTF-71 commander, Col. William Hall, said that the conference was a good opportunity to show Guardsmen the capabilities of and partnership between units and civilian first responders.
"The Joint Conference has been a good opportunity for us to get the word out because there's a lot of people that did not truly understand what the organization did," Hall said. "We had several Guardsmen that are first responders in their during the week career, and they did not realize that we had that capability. So as we socialize that capability across the Texas Military Forces, that will also help us to socialize it within Texas and FEMA Region 6."
| Date Taken: | 03.26.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 03.28.2011 19:11 |
| Story ID: | 67889 |
| Location: | CORPUS CHRISTI, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 163 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, JTF-71 educates, entertains visitors at NGAT conference, by SGT Suzanne Carter, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT