With our knowledege combined

Photo By Staff Sgt. Steven Lopez | Service members, government officials, and agencies from across the nation work together at Joint Simulations Training and Exercise Center in support of Exercise Vibrant Response 17, May 7 at Camp Atterbury, Indiana. Every one of the personnel involved provides a realistic exercise designed to prepare the nation's Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear first responder teams in the event of a CBRN disaster. In three weeks, VR17 was able to confirm three headquarters elements to provide command and control of response forces.  

CAMP ATTERBURY, IN, UNITED STATES

05.19.2017

Story by Sgt. Steven Lopez 

40th Public Affairs Detachment

CAMP ATTERBURY, Indiana-- Service members, government officials, and agencies from across the nation arrived here, to combine their knowledge, skills, and expertise to prepare the Department of Defense's first responders in the case of a real-world domestic catastrophic disaster, from April 23 through May 10.

Exercise Vibrant Response 17, an annual training exercise, is designed to prepare the nation's Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear first responder teams in the event of a CBRN disaster.

National agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency make the exercise as realistic as possible by providing support from a command and control standpoint in which they provide various mission assignments for the units training.
Headquarters, U.S. Army North (ARNORTH) elements help drive the training in the decision making of the units that react to the scenarios ARNORTH personnel inject into the exercise, such as riots and even social media.

"Social media offers a virtual ground truth that can highlight what units are doing right, or wrong, as they navigate the exercise," said Jennifer Brady, an external affairs professional.

Brady said, "The use of social media has become so common that most rely on it for news more than traditional outlets."

ARNORTH also provides public affairs support by providing realistic interviews, videos, photos, and a real-time social media system designed to replicate civilian concerns based on the decisions units make. This allows the training units to operate with a base in which they can react to public rumors, events, and concerns, bringing the role-playing media and the public up-to-speed on what is really happening, affording the opportunity to calm, and inform, the public and the media.

One of the challenges of this exercise was the dissemination and flow and processing of information as there is so much data that must be converted into meaningful information, said Col. Karen Connick, public affairs officer Task Force 76 out of Westover Air Reserve Base, Massachusetts.

Task force 46 is one of the units that came to train at both Camp Atterbury and the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center (MUTC), where they train in, and provide, aviation, sustainment, medical and support personnel for Exercise Vibrant Response 17 (VR17) and Guardian Response 17 (GR17).

The MUTC, hosts the real-world scenarios for responders to react to missions provided by FEMA and given to GR17 units by VR17 task forces 46 or 76. The MUTC provides an extensive library of challenges for responders to utilize their skills to overcome, such as a derailed train, comprise of train cars that have been flipped, burnt, and damaged, to project a dangerous scenario that responders must search and rescue the survivors.

To be able to come here to a small replicated town that simulates such a realistic training environment is phenomenal, said Maj. Gen. Scottie Carpenter, commanding general, 84th Training Command.

"What this venue provides is a collective training environment to where we bring it all into one big scenario and then work together (to complete missions)," said Carpenter.

The planning process took about 18 months to coordinate the entire exercise, seeing that there are various government and federal agencies, around 5,000 Soldiers, and about 100 to 200 local personnel who participate as role players in the disaster exercise just at MUTC. Though two Phases involving GR17 with Reserve forces and VR17 with Active, Reserve and Guard units as command and control of the operations at MUTC.

"Guardian Response at MUTC is a huge operation," said Master Sgt. Brad Staggs, Public Affairs for MUTC. "You walk out there, it doesn't matter when it is, overnight, in the dark, first responder units must do the same operations."

Staggs said, the logistical challenge is pushing through about 5,000 personnel for the exercise.

This exercise allows them to prepare and focus on a larger scale in responding to an emergency, said Connick.

At the end of the day, while all the agencies work day in and day out, the annual VR training exercise sharpens the nation's skill to provide support, rescue and the ability to provide tranquility to those that may be involved if such a disaster might occur. However, this was the first iteration including Reserve personnel performing the field training exercise portion at MUTC.

"This is all about the public", said Carpenter. "This is all about saving lives in a disaster."

Although separate exercises, GR17 and VR17 were linked in ensuring requests from the state and FEMA were executed in responding and supporting the needs of the affected community. Three command and control (C2) units were validated and confirmed to perform the mission of receiving and employing units to support response efforts.

Joint Task Force – Civil Support, from Fort Eustis, Virginia, known as the Defense CBRN Response Force (DCRF) is a joint headquarters of all active services and the primary responder. CBRN Response Forces (CREs) TF-76 (Reserves) and TF-46 (Guard) are follow-on forces. TF-76 is comprised of members of the 76th Operational Response Command, Salt Lake City, Utah. TF-46 comes from members of the 46th Military Police Command, Michigan National Guard, from Lansing, Michigan.

What this does is brings multiple agencies together under one command system, said Carpenter. Everyone speaks the same language and works with a common goal.

This system is the same one used for all emergency responses nationally – the National Incident Management System (NIMS) – a part of the National Response Framework. This system is used by all emergency first responders from the local to national level, to ensure everyone is using the same language and response tactics no matter how small or large the incident may be – from a small fire to a major catastrophic incident. NIMS is a scalable response effort, yet keeps the incident commander – the first on-scene, in control of the overall incident.

• Date Taken: 05.19.2017
• Date Posted: 05.19.2017 14:00
• Story ID: 234489
• Location: CAMP ATTERBURY, IN, US
• Hometown: CAMP ATTERBURY, IN, US
• Hometown: MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, IN, US
• Hometown: SAN ANTONIO, TX, US