Courtesy Photo | Soldiers from the 301st Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash,...... read more read more
CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind. - Strength and dedication lead the way as America’s reserve Army of citizen Soldiers come together for the second half of Vibrant Response ’14, the nation’s premiere defense Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) disaster relief training mission that takes place yearly at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, Butlerville, Indiana and Camp Atterbury, Indiana.
Leading the Command and Control CBRN Response Elements (C2CRE-A), is the 301st Maneuver Enhancement Brigade (Task Force OPS) from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. The exercise focuses on Department of Defense support of civil authorities in a consequence management role as part of DOD’s scalable response capability to assist civilian responders in saving lives, relieving human suffering and providing critical support community recovery following a catastrophic CBRN event.
“Our role at VR ‘14 is mission command of the critical forces units comprised of urban search and rescue, decontamination, reconnaissance, and engineering route clearance,” said Master Sgt. Paul Caswell, operations S3 senior sergeant for this exercise. “This exercise is for the Northern Command to train troops to respond to national disasters, both natural and manmade, that relate to a CBRN threat,” he added.
Setting up a tactical operations center (TOC) and managing consequences of a disaster, is one of the mission essential tasks of the 301st that will help prepare these Soldiers to respond to possible threats.
VR ‘14 is a large scale validation exercise, preparing the 301st for upcoming missions. Maj. Jim Maxwell, chaplain, said, “FEMA, other reserve units, National Guard and other government agencies are part of this exercise and in support of civil authority’s mission, taking care of land areas is the MEB’s role. This mission is very important. We in the military are here to serve and the value of selfless service has a strong emotion behind it when we are helping our own people here at home during a terrible ordeal.” He goes on to say, “As a chaplain I advise the commander and provide religious support by nurturing the living, caring for the wounded and honoring the dead and that sums up what I do.”
Vibrant Response 14 is taking place July 21 through Aug. 7. U.S. Army North, U.S. Northern Command's Joint Force Land Component Command, expects about 5,500 military and civilian personnel from across the country to take part in this major training exercise simulating the response to a terrorist attack in the United States.
| Date Taken: | 08.03.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 08.03.2014 21:02 |
| Story ID: | 138169 |
| Location: | CAMP ATTERBURY, IN, US |
| Web Views: | 474 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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