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ORISKANY, N.Y. - A regional disaster response force of National guardsmen and women will arrive here at the New York State Preparedness Center in mid-May to certify their readiness after participating in a large-scale validation exercise.
The National Guard's Homeland Response Force is one of ten established by the Department of Defense to serve as a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High Explosive (CBRNE) Consequence Management Response force.
The soldiers and airmen of the HRF will validate their capabilities at the State Preparedness Training Center from May 14-20, with a preliminary communications exercise based at the Army National Guard armory in Utica May 7-11. A media advisory will be issued in the runup to the start of the training.
The New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services established the training center in 2006. The facility, comprised of 723 acres at the former Oneida County Airport prepares traditional and non-traditional first responders to gain the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters or terrorist-related incidents.
Residents may notice increased military traffic in the Oriskany, Rome and Utica areas as the HRF conducts its final training preparations and validation exercise.
The HRF provides governors with a response capability to assist first responders in saving lives and mitigating suffering in response to a CBRNE incident.
The 10 HRFs align with each Federal Emergency Management Agency region to allow for closer and more familiar contact with civilian responders. The National Guard forces also provide a greater responsiveness to local authorities due to their closer geographical locations.
The Region 2 Homeland Response Force directly supports FEMA region two states and territories of New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Homeland Response Force consists of about 570 soldiers and airmen of the National Guard with expertise in search and extraction of disaster victims, incident site security, decontamination, medical treatment and command and control of the mission.
The HRF is the focal point for increasing response flexibility and lifesaving efforts of local authorities after a CBRNE incident in the states supported by FEMA Region 2.
The team trains under Defense Department guidelines to respond within a 6-12 hour window to local authorities after a WMD or other hazardous materials incident requiring assistance from federal military resources. The force is primarily equipped to respond via ground transport to an incident site, but is capable of air transportation to support all the states or territories responding to a CBRNE event.
The core of each HRF is a CBRNE capability similar to that found in the National Guard's existing CBRNE Enhanced Response Force Packages, augmented with additional command and control and security capability. This allows for the force to expand as an incident may require.
At the same time, these National Guard forces must be prepared to provide trained and ready troops to support overseas contingency operations as needed.
The HRF is designed to foster increased dialogue between regional first responders and other state and federal response agencies. The HRF plays an important role at the regional level in helping develop and build regional plans and in working with emergency managers to build a cohesive government response to CBRNE incidents at the regional level.
| Date Taken: | 04.23.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 04.23.2012 17:10 |
| Story ID: | 87200 |
| Location: | ORISKANY, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 165 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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