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    California's Homeland Response Force security element protects first responders

    California National Guard’s Homeland Response Force trains in the desert during the 2011 Arizona Statewide Vigilant Guard Exercise

    Photo By Master Sgt. Salli Sablan | Two 40th Military Police Company soldiers assist a role playing nuclear blast victim...... read more read more

    PHOENIX, AZ, UNITED STATES

    11.04.2011

    Story by Sgt. Salli Sablan 

    California National Guard Primary   

    PHOENIX – The bus was loaded full of military policemen clad in white hazmat suits and gas masks hanging by their sides. No one spoke. Their faces were strained with worry, apprehension and for some, excitement. The shout went out, “Gas, gas, gas!” by their leader. Rustling and snapping of rubber straps being adjusted was all you heard as the soldiers quickly donned their protective masks. Breathing heavily they rushed off the bus in a controlled, hurried manner.

    What they saw was mass annihilation. Casualties everywhere. Injured people staggering around burned from radiation exposure. Buildings leveled. All manner of what the area use to look like was gone. It looked like a nuclear bomb went off.

    That is what it was suppose to look like according to the scenario of the 2011 Arizona Statewide Vigilant Guard Exercise in Phoenix, Nov. 3-5. A flood followed by a fictional detonation of an improvised nuclear device was created to put Arizona’s Department of Emergency and Military Affairs through its paces and build a response plan with the help of more than 8,000 participants from hundreds of local, state and federal agencies.

    The soldiers, who have been training for this exercise for months, are from the California National Guard’s 40th and 270th Military Police companies. The Los Alamitos and Sacramento stationed units belong to the 49th Military Police Brigade out of Fairfield. The exercise was also designed to enhance disaster preparedness of the Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and Utah National Guard who all sent troops to the sixth largest city in the U.S. More specifically it helped prepare the 49th Military Police Brigade to assume the role as the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Region IX military disaster coordinator, or Homeland Response Force.

    The job of the military policemen was to provide security and force protection to the first responders as they tried to restore order and coordinate recovery efforts.

    “In this exercise we get to use our expertise to help civilians and help offsite resources that might be tapped out very quickly,” said 40th Military Police Company Commander, Capt. Cassandra Harris. “And this is all to save lives and that is the underlying goal.”

    Security is critical in any large-scale disaster that could bring chaos and conflict from possible secondary attackers, criminal elements or simply distressed citizens. The presence of the military police would allow rescue forces to do their jobs under a veil of protection. The HRF security element provides this needed force protection support, and also comes with additional manpower assets, civil disturbance response capabilities, and law enforcement reinforcement.

    Unlike civilian law enforcement, the HRF security forces combine their police and hazardous material training, to assist citizens in a disaster.

    “What is unique with the HRF security element is that local law enforcement cannot put on a hazmat suit and operate in a contaminated environment. That is [the HRFs] unique ability,” said Rob Conner, the security forces observer/controller with the Joint Information Center for the exercise. “They can operate in a CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear) environment.”

    During the exercise, the soldiers were constantly confronted with role-playing nuclear blast survivors as individuals and as mobs. As a mob, the unruly gang attempted to force their way into the blast site to see the devastation for themselves and locate friends and family. Inside the blast zone, individuals attempted to flee the affected area into the unaffected area. They dealt with other general scuffles that erupted among the casualty victims desperate for information on loved ones, injured to various degrees, or worried about food and shelter. The soldiers needed to be both that caring fellow citizen but also disciplined in their training.

    “We felt pretty proud of our reaction. It got intense but I was proud that all of our training came into play,” said Spc. Sergio Juarez, a Los Angeles resident with the 40th Military Police Company. “Everyone stepped up and did what was expected. No one stood around. Everyone filled in the gaps and worked as a team.”

    “We are trained as military police with a war state of mind. It’s a little different responding to civilians in our own country,” said San Jose resident Spc. Jennifer Swangnete, with the 270th Military Police Company. “Here, we have to have more of a helpful attitude, assisting civilians on a more personable and caring level than if we were in a combat zone,” said Swangnete.

    This exercise scenario called for the HRF security element to shift gears, said exercise observer, controller Conner. “The military police have to shift from a focus of war fighting tasks to a humanitarian focus,” he explained. “This is an assistance mission rather than guarding from a tactical or offensive position. This is making sure that the lifesaving potential is maximized.”

    When asked how this kind of exercise benefits civilians, Conner responded, “the benefit to the civilian population is that they have a force out there, that if the worst happens, we’ll come to their aid and provide medical triage, be given first responder and decontamination treatment. This group [the HRF team] has the potential to save thousands of lives.”

    In large-scale disasters, the FEMA Region IX HRF conduct security, search and extraction, decontamination and medical triage as needed in order to save lives and mitigate human suffering and prepare follow on forces to take over.

    It is a quick response force that can be notified for activation within six hours and all forces en-route within 12 hours (longer if units are airlifted) and is under the command of the governor of California, according to a HRF capabilities report.

    “This is probably one of the best suited missions for the National Guard in forty years,” said Conner, a military veteran. “This is the focus of the National Guard, Army and Air, actually helping the people down the street in their local neighborhoods along with supporting law enforcement authorities. They are getting back to a mission of helping the town you live in or the next town over. This is what the National Guard was built for.”

    A lot of the soldiers within the 40th and 270th Military Police are local law enforcement officers who live by the creed, protect and serve. Helping their fellow citizens is what they do, making these units and this exercise a perfect match.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 11.04.2011
    Date Posted: 11.08.2011 15:34
    Story ID: 79731
    Location: PHOENIX, AZ, US

    Web Views: 418
    Downloads: 0

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