Photo By Staff Sgt. Hector Tinoco | A role player yells through a microphone at members of Indiana’s National Guard...... read more read more
Subscribe
INDIANAPOLIS – What happens when Indiana has its worst day? When there’s been a catastrophic natural disaster and there’s no power, no access to clean water and buildings have collapsed. Who will answer the call for help? The truth is – everyone who can.
This week in Terre Haute and at Muscatatuck Training Center near Butlerville, Homeland Defender, a statewide, domestic response exercise, brought together federal, state and local agencies to rehearse for when Indiana encounters its worst day.
“An exercise like this gives us the opportunity to train with a lot of different agencies that we might not normally have the opportunity to train with,” said Capt. David Crouch, a science officer with the Indiana National Guard’s 53rd Civil Support Team. “Out here today, we have the Indiana State Police and we have the Department of Homeland Security. So one of those two agencies would typically be the ones that would request our assistance.”
The homeland is not defended by one organization alone. It takes firefighters, police officers, soldiers, airmen, emergency managers, cyber teams, rescue personnel and local leaders building trust long before a real emergency occurs. This is why the Homeland Defender exercise was created.
“I think it's very difficult to train this large of a scenario. We're talking about a multistory demolition, multistory survival rescue operation,” said Brandon Sackbun, mayor of Terre Haute. “This is a great lesson learned. Every mayor, every governor should go through it because we've got to practice like we fight.”
There are many lessons to be learned with an operation like this one. The biggest piece every agency noted that their teams took away from Homeland Defender was the ability to work and train together in a controlled, simulated environment. It’s not every day that these agencies get this opportunity and it takes months of planning and coordination to pull it off.
Every agency has different roles during scenarios like the ones portrayed during Homeland Defender.
In one scenario at Muscatatuck, Indiana State Police’s Bomb Squad ensured any potential explosives on the scene were secure. The Department of Homeland Security’s Radiation Team ensured the radiation levels weren’t at a deadly level.
Yet every organization has the same priority – ensuring the public’s health and safety.
“It matters to the average Hoosier because you know you're protected,” said Courtney Eckstein, radiation program director for the state of Indiana, within the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. “We are trying to build really strong relationships between all levels of government, federal, state and local. We're all training like this to support because everything starts at the local level and ends at the local level.”
Defending the homeland has different meanings depending on who you ask.
For Indiana Task Force 1 K-9 coordinator and handler Deanna Lazowski Lamb, she strives to make her home safe for everyone. When she’s not busy training with her K-9 partner, Apple, a live-find search and rescue canine, she’s a part-time paramedic in her community.
“You want to help out the best you can in the most resourceful way to do it, and the most timely way to do it,” Lamb said. “We don't want citizens to be without power, without food, without anything for too long. We need to take care of each other.”
With so many moving pieces during Homeland Defender, the key message these agencies want Hoosiers to know is that, “No matter what the incident is, we have your back,” said Capt. Nick Arnold, public information officer for Terre Haute Fire Department.
“It matters to Hoosiers because if there is something that happens in their community, they know that the different agencies that respond, they've worked together, they've trained together. And at the end of the day, they're going to keep the Hoosiers safe.” Arnold said.
Homeland Defender 2026 was more than a training exercise. It was an opportunity for military units, first responders, emergency managers and government agencies to build relationships before they are needed.
While Hoosiers may never see the planning, coordination and training that takes place behind the scenes, exercises like Homeland Defender help ensure that when disaster strikes, the organizations responding are prepared to act as one team.
| Date Taken: | 12.31.1969 |
| Date Posted: | 06.15.2026 10:48 |
| Story ID: | 567782 |
| Location: | TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 30 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Defending the Homeland Through Unified Response, by SGT Skyler Schendt, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
