Photo By Spc. Paul Berzinas | Tech Sgt. Charles E. Brodie works to generate damage assessments in the Joint Task...... read more read more
Subscribe
HONOLULU, Hawaii - More than 2,200 National Guardsmen, active duty service members, and civilian personnel are participating in Vigilant Guard/Makani Pahili 2015, a disaster preparedness exercise being held in Hawaii.
The exercise, sponsored by U.S. Northern Command and the National Guard Bureau, combines the Vigilant Guard exercise with Hawaii’s Makani Pahili hurricane readiness exercise.
Nearly 700 of the service members participating in the exercise came from outside of Hawaii, traveling to various Hawaiian Islands from states in the Continental U.S.
The Makani Pahili portion of the exercise focuses on preparation for and response to a hurricane disaster scenario in Hawaii.
The National Guard portion of the exercise is run from Joint Task Force 5-0, an Army tactical operations command center responsible for assigning tasks to the military units participating in the exercise.
The purpose of the exercise is to ensure that National Guard units know what resources they have at their disposal in the event of a catastrophic natural disaster, and that they have plans that involve active duty military units and civilians in order to more effectively respond to a disaster.
“The plans that we’re developing now will be applicable to the Hawaiian Islands,” said Tech. Sgt. Charles E. Brodie, an airman working in information operations for JTF 5-0. “Critical infrastructure has already been laid out, there could be a tsunami, a hurricane, an earthquake or fires, it doesn’t matter.”
Involving civilian disaster response teams has allowed military and civilian personnel to optimize a joint disaster response strategy.
“The civilian team that we’ve had working with us has been enormously helpful” said Brodie. “They have real-world experience in how assets need to be deployed and how they’re used.”
The National Guard’s role is to support civil authorities in the recovery effort, said Spc. Ruth R. Wagner, acting noncommissioned officer in charge of intelligence operations for JTF 5-0. Civilian involvement in this exercise is absolutely necessary for creating a realistic disaster scenario.
Creating a joint National Guard, active-duty military, and civilian authority environment is critical for effective, real-world disaster preparedness training.
“If we don’t have that [civilian involvement in the exercise], then there’s really no exercise or us,” said Wagner.
| Date Taken: | 06.02.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 06.04.2015 01:02 |
| Story ID: | 165426 |
| Location: | HONOLULU, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 233 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Vigilant Guard/Makani Pahili 2015, by SPC Paul Berzinas, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT