CHARLESTON, S.C. – The 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, based out of Charleston, S.C., will be participating in a training exercise with more than 3,500 military and civilian personnel from around the country. The exercise centers around a simulated terrorist attack on U.S. soil. The exercise, named Vibrant Response, takes place July 10 – 24 at Camp Atterbury, Ind., and surrounding areas.
“This exercise won’t be like anything our Soldiers have seen before,” Lt. Col. Blake Storey, Commander of the 218th. “They will see and feel a small taste of what it would be like to react to a real attack.”
The training is designed to immerse the Soldiers into what a real disaster would be like. Special effects will be used to create the “disaster area.” Everything from burning cars, smoldering rubble, and “injured” survivors will be used to give the Soldiers a taste of what a real attack would be like.
The training will include urban and aerial search and rescue missions, simulated decontaminations operations, airlift, medical training and many other events with excellent still and video opportunities. Local citizens will role play injured civilians, complete with mock injuries. Other key roles will be role played as well, including local mayors and the state governor.
“This exercise is specially designed to test all our skills that we have gained over the last few years,” said Storey. “This is the culminating event we have trained for. This is our Super Bowl.”
“The 218th‘s mission is critical to Homeland Defense and Homeland Security,” said Brig. Gen. Lester D. Eisner, Deputy Adjutant General of South Carolina. “I’m very proud of all the Soldiers in the 218th and I have no doubt that they will succeed during this very tough and demanding exercise.”
Media covering the exercise will see multi-story building and tunnel searches, rubble pile extraction as well as medical treatment of patients, and aero medical evacuation.
The 218th is part of the Chemical, Biological, Nuclear, Radiological and High Explosive Consequence Management Response Force, or CCMRF (pronounced see-smurf) for short.
The Department of Defense has developed two CCMRF units to react to catastrophic incidents. The 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, from the South Carolina Army National Guard, will be the lead unit on the ground when CCMRF 10.2 is deployed.
The 218th MEB will assumed command of the CCMRF 10.2 mission Oct. 1, 2009, and has been tasked with the mission for the next few years. The CCMRF units are made up of active, Guard and Reserve units representing each military service. The CCMRF units deploy on order of the secretary of defense, once requested by a governor, to support responding federal, state and local agencies. Federal military members must remember they are in a supporting role of the primary federal agency, typically FEMA, while operating within the United States.
CCMRF units are designed to deploy when they have been requested by a state’s governor to aid local authorities during a disaster. Their mission is to provide support to local and state authorities. The 218th MEB will control more than a dozen Reserve and National Guard units within CCMRF 10.2.
To cover this event, media should contact Capt. Tim W. Irvin at 803-391-0176 or e-mail tim.irvin@us.army.mil.
| Date Taken: | 06.25.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 07.02.2010 09:49 |
| Story ID: | 52287 |
| Location: | CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 230 |
| Downloads: | 121 |
This work, S.C. Guard Unit Trains for the Unthinkable, by CPT TIM IRVIN, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
