Photo By John Crosby | Signal support sergeants of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 81st Troop Command...... read more read more
CAMP ATTERBURY JOINT MANEVUER TRAINING CENTER, Ind. – In the event of an emergency we know to call 911 for emergency response services. In the unfortunate event when emergency turns into catastrophe, who is called on?
In the state of Indiana, the National Guard’s Joint Task Force 81 is the answer. When an emergency situation escalates past the capacity of local authority and the governor turns to the Guard for support, the Soldiers of JTF81 are the first to stand up.
These Soldiers, organic to the 81st Troop Command, headquartered in Indianapolis, are conducting annual training at the Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center in central Indiana this week honing their skills.
“Primarily, our mission is to provide defense support to civil authority operations,” said 81st Troop Command and JTF81 Commander Col. Mark Coers. “It’s basically the disaster response. When the disasters get to a level where it can’t be handled locally and the governor has requested National Guard help. The [Adjutant General] makes the determination on whether to exercise the JTF81 headquarters, which is basically the 81st Troop Command Headquarters. We are the guts in the cell of JTF81 along with some Air Guard assets.”
As is the Indiana National Guard’s homeland disaster response team, JTF81 is trained to conduct defense support to civil authorities such as the Department of Homeland Security, fire and police departments and other forms of emergency service agencies.
When called upon, JTF81 will mobilize and deploy to the scene of a disaster and report to an incident commander from one of these agencies. Taking guidance from the incident commander, the joint task force takes command and control over any National Guard entities needed in the area. As the headquarters are established, the needs for specific services and areas of expertise can be identified and a troop list is developed. Soldiers and units on the troop list are then activated and mobilized to the scene.
“We are ready and prepared to respond to anything that might happen,” said Coers. “We can respond immediately providing tactical command in hours and traditional National Guardsman within 24 to 48 hours.”
JTF81 assisted in the Indiana Wabash Valley floods in 2008. It was the first time JTF81 had stood up. It successfully commanded and controlled about 1,700 service members involved in the flood response.
“Our Soldiers come from our communities,” said Lt. Col. Deedra Thombleson, executive officer of 81st TC. “We bring citizens to help citizens.” National Guard servicemembers often have two completely separate careers. An infantry Soldier may be a police officer as a civilian. This can work out to the Guard’s advantage in disaster situations. “We bring people with secondary jobs and secondary knowledge that can be beneficial in an emergency.”
Men, trucks and helicopters from the Marines Reserve, Army and Air National Guards were deployed to the scene, rescuing civilians, aiding displaced citizens and salvaging what property could be salvaged.
“When they see the military come in, there’s just a trust,” said Thombleson. “A town lined the streets for us when we left. They brought pies and cookies to us. It’s just something about this uniform and representing the 14,000 of us that are out there doing this for the state of Indiana.”
JTF81 continues to improve through training and emergency response technology. The unit is preparing for “Vibrant Response”, a training scenario simulating a nuclear detonation in a large Indiana city. The task force is using their time during annual training to draw up a plan.
“We’re doing mission analyses briefing, courses of action development and war-gaming, putting together our own [operation] plan based on our units and what units will be assigned to us in Vibrant Response. What that will do is help us develop a nuclear detonation [operation] plan, continue to improve it and have it on the shelf,” said Thombleson. “It will give us a plan that is already there and has already been exercised to allow us to respond more efficiently and effectively to the local community the shelf in case no joke, somebody detonates a nuclear bomb in the Indiana area.”
The command cell will be working with emergency medical services, police and fire departments, different branches of military and more first responder agencies during the exercise. Communication can be difficult to impossible when dealing on such a wide spectrum of communications systems and different procedures between these entities.
To eliminate this problem, JTF81 has acquired a tool to streamline interagency communications.
The Joint Incident Site Communications Capacity system provides this means. This mobile communications system is fast, effective and easy to setup. It enables different emergency response entities using different radios and channels to communicate with each other on one system. It also provides internet, telephone and video teleconferencing capabilities, keeping the command and control element connected and relevant.
Thombleson believes this new addition to JTF81 will help dramatically. During the response to the floods in 2008, one unit had to open a school and use its computer lab for a means of communication. Others had to search for armories. Eventually they were able to use the Kentucky National Guard’s JISCC, but it took several days to acquire it.
“[The JISCC] will make us more independent,” said Thombleson. “When you have people stuck in the flood water and the local police are communicating on a different channel, it makes it difficult to move quickly and provide the response that they wanted. [The JISCC] enables us to band all the responder’s channels so that we are all on one frequency. It brings a great tool.”
JTF81 also prepares for a humanitarian aid mission to Haiti. Four 81st Troop Command units, the 381st Military Police Company, headquartered in Plymouth, Ind., the 384th MP Company, headquartered in Bloomington, Ind., the 387th MP Company, headquartered in New Albany, Ind., and the 438th Area Support Medical Company, headquartered in Monticello, Ind. These Soldiers are training at Camp Atterbury to deploy to Haiti in August and September.
The 81st Troop Command is prepared to provide aid overseas and on the home front.
“We’re working on trying to establish operational plans for the different types of disasters that we may have to respond to,” said Thombleson. “This is what the National Guard is about. We’re here to protect the citizens of Indiana and help them through tough times as well as deploy abroad and do what the president has ordered us to do.”
| Date Taken: | 06.15.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 06.20.2010 19:14 |
| Story ID: | 51702 |
| Location: | CAMP ATTERBURY, INDIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 177 |
| Downloads: | 108 |
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