SALINA, Kan. - A National Guard Bureau training validation team visited the Great Plains Joint Training Center as part of the collective Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Enterprise training site validation program, March 5, 2012.
“For about two to three years now, we have been working towards being a validated site under the joint training auspices of the National Guard Bureau,” said Lt. Col. Greg Platt, operations officer for the Great Plains Joint Training Center, Detachment 1, Joint Forces Headquarters.
About 19 months ago, NGB asked sites across the country to submit a validation packet for validation as one of the collective sites recognized by NGBfor CBRN training. They had a more than 40 applicants and the GPJTC has made it to the final round. Therefore, NGB sent out their joint training validation team to validate the information GPJTC provided, visiting and viewing the sites and asking questions about past training held at the GPJTC.
“We are looking to train a multi-echelon interagency where we would have a major catastrophe and bring in all the national and regional assets to one large collective training event,” said Maj. Pirom Srinual, joint collective training branch, National Guard Bureau.
“We are looking for sites that already have the infrastructure in place to host a large scale exercise and that have already hosted such exercises previously where a lot of the infrastructure is already in place,” said Srinual. “We don’t want to have to come in and build new infrastructure. We want to go in and tap into and leverage existing capabilities that are already being built for others, but can be leveraged for our urban training venues.”
The GPJTC held a couple of large combined CBRN training operations before the validation proves even began. Joint training personnel from NGB visited the GPJTC during both exercises, so they were already familiar with GPJTC capabilities.
“We had hosted Vigilant Guard 2009 in Kansas. We ran a foreign animal disease, continuing operations, Joint Task Force command and a domestic terrorist response out here at Crisis City,” said Platt. “The National Guard Bureau’s J7 joint training element came out as part of a hosting element to watch that operation. They were very impressed with that. It was after that that they asked us to submit a packet for validation.”
During their validation, the team visited multiple sites including the Smoky Hill Weapons Range, Crisis City, Army shooting ranges, Nickell barracks facilities, the Salina Airport Authority, Kansas State University’s unmanned aircrafts systems, the Bicentennial Center and the Salina County Emergency Management facilities.
Many nonmilitary partners are also involved in and very supportive of this process, as they will be engaged in the training if the GPJTC becomes a validated NGB training site. These include Kansas Search and Rescue Task Force, Kansas Incident Management Team, Kansas Response – Hazmat, Salina Municipal Airport, Salina County Emergency Management, Salina Fire Department, Salina Police Department and Salina’s Bicentennial Center.
“If we are one of the ten validated sites, we will receive training and sustainment funding, additional assistance in preparing for larger exercises, and that we will be one of 10 recognized sites throughout the country to train the Homeland Response Forces, the Chemical - Enhanced Response Force Package and the Civil Support Teams, to include hosting their training and conducting their federal level validations that are so important to their missions,” said Platt. “As part of that validation process, National Guard Bureau funds will be coming into the state to help us prepare for that training, which is very important.”
For more information of the GPJTC or to schedule a training event, contact Lt. Col. Greg Platt at gregory.platt@us.army.mil or 785-826-3706.
| Date Taken: | 03.05.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 05.04.2012 14:44 |
| Story ID: | 87912 |
| Location: | SALINA, KANSAS, US |
| Web Views: | 145 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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