More than 200 Soldiers and Airmen from Kennesaw’s Joint Task Force (JTF) 781 worked with their Florida Guard counterparts, the air station’s naval hospital and the Navy Region Southeast Regional Operations Center today in a joint homeland defense training mission.
The site chosen for the exercise is the naval air station (NAS) “antenna farm,” here in Jacksonville, Florida.
Also participating in the training were the Jacksonville County Sheriff’s Office, local law enforcement and the Naval Security Department. Additionally, MEDEVAC assistance from the Navy’s Helicopter Squadron 11, Life Flight from Jacksonville’s Baptist Hospital and more than 100 Sailors, Marines and local residents playing the roles of disaster victims.
Observing the event, according to the naval air station Public Affairs Office, were officials with the city of Jacksonville’s Emergency Management Agency, the Navy Installations Command and Joint Interagency Training and Education Center, East – JITEC-E – out of West Virginia, and the Response International Group.
“Partnering with the naval air station is something we’ve looked forward to,” said Maj. Jeff Carlyle, JTF 781 commander. “They’ve been quite accommodating, and they’ve really went all-out to get the participants, and that really enhances the training.
“Stressing our people and our processes is what an exercise like this is about,” Carlyle added. “It really gives us another platform upon which to train, and it gets us out of our comfort zone.”
"NAS Jacksonville," said its commander, Capt. Jack Scorby Jr., "is proud to host the multifaceted exercise.
"We expect the cooperation and level of training to be superb, and we look forward to the opportunity to conduct training like this in the future,” Scorby added.
Unlike a “no notice” exercise, whereby JTF personnel get that “middle-of-the-night call," this event preemptively put forces on the ground, ready and waiting.
“It’s what we call a ‘preposition scenario,’” said Capt. Philips Plourde, JTF 781’s medical plans and operations officer. “In this case, the Florida JTF has asked us to assist with a ‘notional’ air show, just in case a disaster happened…and of course, for the purposes of the exercise, it does.”
This training is different than most JTF 781 has done, and it “really offers us a great opportunity to work alongside the Navy and the local agencies,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Chuck Crews, the task force’s senior enlisted leader. According to Crews, the JTF performs training about two to three times a year to help prepare its personnel for real emergencies.
JTF781 is Georgia’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRNE) Enhanced Response Package (CERFP). It is comprised of Hinesville’s 877th Engineer Company; Marietta’s 248th Medical Company, 138th Chemical Company, 202nd Explosive Ordnance Disposal and 4th Civil Support Team. The Georgia Air National Guard’s 116th Medical Group from Savannah is also participating.
The JTF is part of Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Region 4, which covers not only Georgia, but also Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida. If disaster strikes one of those states, the others respond to assist.
The exercise started in the early morning with members of the 202nd being called on by the Navy EOC to check out a bomb threat. Unit EOD technicians executed a bomb sweep of the area where the air show was to be held. Their search revealed an IED in a building there, and they – along with sheriff’s office bomb technicians – successfully defused and removed the device.
Later, about mid-day during the air show, a notional aircraft flew over the grandstands, releasing the biochemical Chloropicrin on the “spectators.” The role-players began panicking and tried running to nearby woods or the base medical center. Others sat in the stands and role-played panicking victims, and some even had to be restrained by rescue personnel.
The JTF went into action alongside its civilian counterparts to set up an incident response command post, a fatality extraction point, and medical and decontamination centers.
Lieutenant Ryan Gavant with the 138th Chemical Company and his team established three decontamination lanes: the first for victims unable to walk by themselves, the second for those who could walk, and the third was a specially equipped technical decontamination lane. Each lane included an undress area, a wash-down area, monitoring tents and redress tents.
“Our folks have looked forward to working with the Georgia Guard,” said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Matthew Gustafson of the naval hospital decontamination team. “We’re learning their procedures and gaining knowledge that’ll certainly improve our own readiness.”
While Gavant, Gustafson and their teams prepared, search and evacuation teams and fatality recover teams geared-up and headed into the area to assist the victims and ascertain what fatalities had happened.
As victims were brought in, medics with the 248th determined which patients needed to go where, and then moved them, if needed, to the next higher level of treatment.
“Though this is an exercise, this scenario is highly possible at an air show,” said Sgt. First Class Holly Muse, JTF 781’s assistant operations and readiness NCO. She also acted as the assistant NOIC for this exercise. “In this way, we know what we do right, and what needs improvement. And there’s always room for improvement in our business,” she added.
As the exercise ended, Maj. Ken Hutnick, JTF project officer and the exercise command and control coordinator, said people expect a lot from the nation’s emergency responders. “Since 9/11, when disaster struck us here at home, Americans want a response and we give that to them,” he said. "Every time we conduct an exercise, like this one or any other, we get better at what we do, and that enables us to respond faster and more prepared to meet any challenge.”
NAVAL AIR STATION JACKSONVILLE, Jacksonville Fla., Feb. 25, 2010
Story by Sgt. Jerry De Avila
Photo by Sgt. Nerita Davis
124th MPAD
Georgia Army National Guard
