Photo By Staff Sgt. Dustin Jordan | A survey team members from the 101st Civil Support Team, Idaho National Guard, dawns...... read more read more
National Guard, civilian agencies conduct WMD training exercise
RAPID CITY, S.D. – The South Dakota National Guard in partnership with several local, state and federal agencies conducted a regional training exercise, April 26-27, throughout western South Dakota.
The “Rushmore Roundup” exercise focused on military and civilian interoperability, communications and field operations related to the response of a weapon of mass destruction incident. Incident site locations included Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Badlands National Park, Custer State Park, and Sanford Underground Research Facility.
“The Rushmore Roundup exercise allows participants an opportunity to validate interagency coordination and response, reinforce tactics, techniques and procedures, provide beneficial lessons learned to expose vulnerabilities and increase effectiveness, and build relationships within our region, federal agencies, and local agencies,” said Capt. Michael Wollman, operations officer, 82nd Civil Support Team, SDNG.
The exercise involved the SDNG’s 82nd CST as well as CSTs from six other states (Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota) and the following partner agencies: S.D. Office of Emergency Management, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Weather Service, RAP 5 – Department of Energy, Pennington and Custer County Offices of Emergency Management, and the Rapid City Fire Department.
“This training is important because you just never know what is out there,” said Capt. Erica Bermensolo, medical operations officer, 101st Civil Support Team, Idaho National Guard. “We had the Anthrax scares 10 plus years ago but there are still calls to capital buildings, municipal buildings, schools, etc. and having a team to respond to that is invaluable.”
More than 100 participants responded to separate incidents over a 48-hour period that challenged each team and responding agency based on their objectives, to garner an increased level of communication between teams and their respective sections, to develop interoperability among local stakeholders, and to maintain operational response procedures during an incident.
“We set up some realistic scenarios in each of the geographical locations so they can do what it is they do for a living and get good training value out of it,” said Mark Beirne, exercise liaison, Emergency Response Training Institute.
Civil Support Teams support civil authorities in the event of the use of a weapon of mass destruction at incident sites by identifying chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear agents or substances, assessing current and projected consequences, advising on response measures, and assisting with requests for additional support.
“This event is great for the CST’s outreach program, because they are a civil support team, they deploy in support of civil authorities like fire departments and police agencies at the behest of the governor, said Beirne. “This exercise allows the teams around the area to get familiar with each other.”
The exercise participants were pleased with the training locations and support.
“It’s nice to be able to be in all these beautiful areas and do great training that stresses us to see how equipped and responsive we can be,” said Bermensol. “South Dakota did an excellent job logistically they have taken care of everything,”
| Date Taken: | 04.29.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 04.29.2022 11:43 |
| Story ID: | 419615 |
| Location: | SD, US |
| Web Views: | 113 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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