CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind. — Nearly 9,000 soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors and Department of Defense civilians will descend on central Indiana, July 24-Aug 13, to exercise DoD’s ability to respond effectively to a catastrophic nuclear disaster in the homeland.
The Army Reserve 231st Transportation Company of Athens, Ga. will be an integral part of this exercise and scenario during Vibrant Response 13, the largest DoD exercise of this type to date.
“The 231st is working with the 167th Theater Sustainment Command to provide support all units participating in Vibrant Response 13,” said Staff Sgt. Brenda Piotrowski, non-commissioned officer-in-charge, 231st Trans. Company. “This is our annual training and it provides a chance for us to not only provide real world support to units, but to learn and get valuable experience that we will all use during real-world missions.”
Vibrant Response 13 is a national-level field training exercise for the Department of Defense’s Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear response enterprise. Led by U.S. Army North based at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, the training event is intended to exercise the ability to deploy, employ and sustain specialized military response forces upon the request of civilian authorities to save lives and relieve human suffering following a catastrophic CBRN incident.
The exercise will take place at various locations in Indiana, including the Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center and Muscatatuck Urban Training Complex, as well as at Fort Knox, Ky. The exercise features realistic venues, fire and smoke effects, mannequins and civilian role-players to simulate a demanding disaster environment.
Units from more than 40 locations throughout the United States will be participating, including U.S. Army North and Task Force 51, Fort Sam Houston, Texas; Joint Task Force – Civil Support, Fort Eustis, Va.; 31st Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Brigade, Alabama National Guard, Northport, Ala.
Federal military forces may be employed if requested by a state and approved by the federal government. These specialized response forces include the 5,200-person defense CBRN response force, which has the initial response capability to provide search and rescue, decontamination, medical, aviation, communications and logistical support.
Two smaller specialized federal military forces of 1,500 personnel each are designed to provide an initial response and accept additional forces to save and sustain lives. The event marks the first confirmation exercise for the third response force. The force consists of National Guard units that would be federalized if called upon for a catastrophic response.
The three federal military forces are part of DoD’s tiered CBRN response structure that provides the nation with a dedicated, trained, ready, scalable and tailorable response capability. The tiered response structure also includes state-based civil support teams and regionally based CBRN enhanced response force packages and homeland response forces. A number of these units will participate in the exercise, as will teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Technical Nuclear Forensics Task Force.
The Department of Defense has long had the mission of supporting civilian agencies in responding to disasters. The Department of Homeland Security has developed a series of national planning scenarios for a variety of hazards that provide a baseline of assumptions to be used by agencies at all levels to develop and assess their readiness and response plans. The Vibrant Response scenario is based on one of those national planning scenarios.
“This exercise is a great way to ‘train as you fight’. It gives all Army Reserve soldiers a chance to understand what’s expected of them during missions and gives younger soldiers a chance to get hands-on training and experience that they otherwise might not have had the chance to get,” said Spc. Whitney Crabtree, truck driver for 231st. “Throughout this exercise we are all getting a feel for how our operations should be conducted. It also teaches us that we have to depend on one another and work as a team to accomplish the mission.”
Media advisory: Media who desire to do interviews with people during the exercise via DoD satellite availability should contact Sgt. Katherine Dowd, 167th Theater Sustainment Command Public Affairs Office, 205-427-8169, Katherine.w.dowd@us.army.mil or Don Manuszewski, 210-482-9303, Donald.e.manuszewski.civ@mail.mil.
| Date Taken: |
07.26.2012 |
| Date Posted: |
08.06.2012 17:07 |
| Story ID: |
92740 |
| Location: |
CAMP ATTERBURY, INDIANA, US |
| Hometown: |
ATHENS, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: |
91 |
| Downloads: |
0 |
PUBLIC DOMAIN
This work, Vibrant Response Exercise rehearses for unthinkable, by SFC Katherine Dowd, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
