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EDINBURGH, Ind. - Tasked with a unique mission, the 38th Infantry Division, Indiana Army National Guard, spent two weeks at Atterbury-Muscatatuck near Edinburgh, Ind., conducting annual training June 15-29.
For the past two years the 38th Infantry Division has served as the domestic all-disaster response mission headquarters for the 26 states east of the Mississippi River. In the event of a disaster the division would, at the invitation from the affected state’s governor, provide command and control of military forces responding to the incident, said Maj. Gen. Lonnie Culver, commanding general, 38th Infantry Division.
If ordered by the president, the 38th is authorized to work as a dual-status command, controlling both guard and active duty forces in these situations.
Serving as a culminating training event, the goal of AT was to successfully complete a command post exercise, CPX4, focusing on a major earthquake hitting Kentucky along the New Madrid Fault. Kentucky emergency management provided support during the exercise via satellite communication, adding to the realism of the event.
“When we go to a scene like this we will likely not be the lead agency. Somebody, either emergency management or someone, is going to be the incident manager and we report to them,” said Culver. “The biggest piece is getting the soldiers to understand we are not the lead. We take missions from whoever our civilian counterparts are, whoever the incident command is.”
Leading up to CPX4, the 38th completed command post exercises during weekend drills simulating nuclear and natural disasters, and conducted concurrent training during Vibrant Response 13.
Knowing a quick response time is needed in the event of a disaster the division set up its forward command post seven times and its main command post three times in the past year, said Brig. Gen. David Wood, deputy commanding general of operations, 38th Infantry Division.
With a goal of setting up the forward and main to be operational within six or seven days this AT, the division was 60 hours ahead of schedule by day two; setting up a command post completely independent of Atterbury.
“We had our own satellite, our own generators and all our own equipment, simulating as if we were in an area that had no infrastructure,” said Wood. “The 38th Infantry Division truly is capable of performing this mission for the United States if called upon. We’re ready to roll out on a moment’s notice, to go respond to and support a state in need.”
Sgt. Tony Mullican, military police company, 38th Infantry Division, monitored radio traffic and relayed information to higher commands during the command post exercise. For him, CPX4 provided new insight into 38th Infantry Division operations.
“It was our [military police] second AT that we’ve done. We volunteered for this one. It’s nice to see how a battalion operates, and kind of see the bigger picture of how everything comes together,” said Mullican.
In addition to CPX4, the soldiers took advantage of many facilities available for training at Atterbury including the 9mm pistol and M4 rifle range, the Engagement Skills Trainer, the Confidence Course and other training areas to improve on soldier skills, said Wood. “While we’re doing that, the number one mission is to do it safely so everyone goes home in better shape than when they got here.”
Soldiers with the 38th worked hard this AT, hitting the goals set for CPX4 and maintaining their soldier skills through other training focuses.
“We just finished our after action review of the CPX; great group of soldiers. They worked hard; proud of them and proud of the division. These soldiers are great, I’ve enjoyed the AT and they’re out their working hard and doing what they need to do to make us successful,” said Culver.
While it’s not an easy task, the division has proved through this training that they are ready to respond for this mission if needed.
Beginning Oct. 1, the division will move to a warfighter mission where they will be tested on command and control in a decisive action scenario, said Wood. Decisive action is the combination of offensive, defensive, planning and operational tasks conducted simultaneously to carry out an operational decision.
| Date Taken: | 06.29.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 07.01.2013 16:43 |
| Story ID: | 109588 |
| Location: | EDINBURGH, INDIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 209 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, 38th Infantry Division trains for domestic disaster response and command, by Ashley Roy, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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