First Army Soldiers participate in Guardian Response 19

Photo By Sgt. William Brown | Soldiers from 68th Engineer Construction Company use airbags to lift fallen concrete off of a manikin on May 3 during Guardian Response 19. Guardian Response 19 tests National Guard and Reserve Component chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive materials team’s response to a simulated nuclear attack scenario.  

MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, IN, UNITED STATES

05.03.2019

Story by Sgt. William Brown 

First Army Division East

MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, Ind. – A derailed train, demolished vehicles, manikins and live role-players were scattered throughout the streets. In one section of this seemingly small, Midwestern town, homes were submerged under water while flames and plumes of smoke could be seen rising from buildings and vehicles.

This was not the set of an episode of The Walking Dead or a new post-apocalyptic movie; it was Muscatatuck Urban Training Center where Department of Defense civilians, U.S. Army Reserve, Army National Guard and active duty Soldiers were reacting to a nuclear bomb scenario during Guardian Response/Vibrant Response 19, April 22 – May 22.

Guardian Response/Vibrant Response 19 tests the response of National
Guard and Reserve Component Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive materials teams.

“What makes this exercise different than normal exercises is that it is not just the Army participating,” said Capt. Isaac Nelson an operations officer assigned to 1st Battalion, 410th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Cavalry Multi-Functional Training Brigade. “Agencies like [Federal Emergency Management Agency], CIA, FBI, local police and fire departments are integrated with the Army for this exercise.”

With approximately 6,000 Soldiers and representatives from the different civilian agencies participating in the multi-phase exercise, there were a lot of moving parts, but with each unit and agency used to doing things a certain way, getting everyone on the same page was important.

“Communication is the most important portion of this exercise,” said Nelson. “The military speaks using acronyms and we're very good at doing it, but at the same time FEMA, fire and police departments and other agencies use their own sets of acronyms.”

“Exercises like this allows us to train together so that we can understand each other if an incident were to ever occur,” he said.

Along with the opportunity to improve communication skills between different agencies, First Army observer coach/trainers were also on site to help mentor their reserve component partners going through the training.

“The OC/T’s are here to ensure that the units follow Army doctrine and standard operating procedures,” said Sgt. 1st Class Eric Galindo an OC/T from 3rd Battalion, 351st Aviation Regiment, 166th Aviation Brigade, from Fort Hood, Texas. “This is accomplished through after-action reviews which allows lessons the unit learned during the exercise to be documented so they can be used later to create [internal] standards.”

Galindo said the standards created during Guardian Response and exercises like it help ensure Soldiers are prepared for any environment they may have to go into.

But it’s difficult to recreate every type of scenario a Soldier could face, said Maj. William Beckenstien, a future operations office in charge assigned to the 78th Training Division from Fort Dix, New Jersey.

Here we try to make the training as realistic as possible so that the units get a feel for what could happen should they have to ever perform these types of missions in real life, he said.

“This type of training prepares us to assist on America’s worst day,” Beckenstien said. “We need to be able to train across all components of the Army and train with our civilian counterparts so if we ever have to respond to an incident like this the American public knows we are ready, willing and able.”

• Date Taken: 05.03.2019
• Date Posted: 05.09.2019 10:33
• Story ID: 321593
• Location: MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, IN, US