COLUMBIA, S.C. - The start of hurricane season officially begins June 1 and to get ready, the South Carolina National Guard will have more than 1,500 troops conducting training May 17-21 in preparation for the upcoming season. Some forecasts are predicting up to 18 storms this year.
Ardent Sentry 13 is a weeklong training exercise where numerous elements from several states will conduct joint exercises to increase their readiness to react to a variety of potential disaster-related scenarios.
At the outset of the event, Maj. Gen Robert E. Livingston Jr., the adjutant general for South Carolina, greeted a group of military, civilian and media personnel at the Joint Operations Center, located at the Pine Ridge Armory, to explain the importance of this exercise.
“We’re training to work together, and test and train resources,” he said.
During the exercise, participants will have to react to a variety of missions in support of disaster preparedness.
“We want to make the training so complicated that a normal hurricane will seem easy,” said Col. Ken Rosado, joint operations officer for the S.C. National Guard.
After the briefing, the invited media had an opportunity to get an aerial view of some of the preparations for training.
A UH-60 Black Hawk and a UH-72 Lakota helicopter viewed the McCrady Training Center and McEntire Joint National Guard Base, where troops were preparing to depart for the exercise.
The areas and counties which will see an increased military presence during the training exercise include: Allendale, Barnwell, Bamberg, Beaufort, Hampton, Jasper, Varnville, Richland County as well as the Savannah River site.