Photo By Staff Sgt. Luther Talks | Joe Kelly, Director of the Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Managment (HSEM),...... read more read more
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By: Sgt. Luther C. Talks
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Distinguished visitors toured the Minnesota Vigilant Guard 2015 exercise on Tuesday. The group was comprised of visiting military officials, emergency response leaders and government officials.
The purpose of the tour was to gain insight on how the Minnesota National Guard coordinates with military, federal, state and civilian agencies during emergencies and disasters.
The tour began with a visit to the Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Management facility (HSEM) in Saint Paul, Minnesota. HSEM Director Joe Kelly spoke on the agency’s four priorities when responding to emergencies and disasters.
“First priority is to protect lives; two is stabilize the incident; third is preserving property and environment; and the fourth, even at the beginning of an incident is how are we going to recover and return back to normal,” said Kelly.
A CH-47 Chinook helicopter transported the group to Camp Ripley, Minnesota, where they observed search and extraction, stabilization and decontamination, and medical operation exercises conducted by the Wisconsin National Guard. Other exercises included a CH-47 Chinook helicopter sling load mission, triage procedures for injured victims and procedures on air medical evacuation.
The tour continued with a CH-47 Chinook helicopter flight to the Minnesota Air Guard’s 148th Fighter Wing in Duluth, Minnesota.
Upon arriving, the 71st Civil Support Team from the Iowa National Guard and the Duluth Chemical Assessment Team demonstrated their capabilities during an exercise where they responded to a hazardous chemical spill.
“The Vigilant Guard is an excellent opportunity for us to integrate with the U.S. military, National Guard, public partnership for private, and government agencies to deploy assets together and work as a team,” said Dale Buckholtz, assistant manager of the Emergency Response for Canadian Pacific.
The tour ended with a look at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, where a mass shelter exercise was conducted with the American Red Cross staff present.
“My staff and I had a phenomenal experience touring Vigilant Guard. It was well organized and great to see everyone working together,” said distinguished visitor Phil Hansen, American Red Cross Regional Chapter CEO.
| Date Taken: | 08.25.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 08.27.2015 13:47 |
| Story ID: | 174436 |
| Location: | ST. PAUL, MN, US |
| Web Views: | 85 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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