CLAY NATIONAL GUARD CENTER, Marietta, Ga., Dec. 1, 2011 – Georgia Air Guard medical personnel – stationed at Savannah’s Combat Readiness Training Center and Warner Robins’ Robins Air Force Base – came together for a five-day exercise at the Florida National Guard’s Camp Blanding that not only tested their ability to support civil authorities during times of disaster, but also received high marks from their evaluators for the job they had done.

Joint training exercise Operation Sunrise, in which the 116th and 165th Medical groups along with  other Georgia Air and Army Guard assets participated, was part of the validation process for Georgia’s 78th Homeland Response Force (HRF), home-stationed here in Marietta. The exercise’s purpose was to test the unit’s readiness as a National Guard Joint Task Force 78th Homeland Response Force command and Control element, and to test subordinate units of Marietta’s Joint Task Force 781 Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High Yield Explosive (CBRNE) Enhanced Response Force Package (CERFP).

“We have highly trained and motivated personnel who do an exceptional job. After the decontamination area was set up, we were able to receive ‘patients’ within 27 minutes, and our complex was 100 percent established within 37 minutes,” said Lt. Col. Charles Drown, the 165th’s deployed medical group commander. “People like these, they make my job easy.”

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Department of Homeland Security put measures in place to ensure robust support was available to respond to such incidents. The National Guard’s role is to support the efforts of local and state first responders until the arrival of federal response at a disaster.

“It’s great because the military works with local hospitals, firefighters, paramedics, doctors, and nurses,” said Maj. Patricia Hood, the 116th MED’s assistant chief nurse administrator. “During any incident, local resources can get overwhelmed, and we’re there to fill any gaps.”

The weeklong operation included a series of “crawl and walk” simulations leading up to the evaluation’s “run phase” on Nov. 18. Using residents from the area around Camp Blanding as simulated victims (complete with special effects makeup), 116th and 165th medical personnel ran non-stop operations for 36 hours.

After the simulated CBRNE disaster and the “medical time has started” call went out, the 116th had 90 minutes to get into place, unload its equipment, set up, and be operational. 

“To ‘be operational’ means that we have oxygen set up, electricity in the tent, and the capability of treating a patient,” explained Lt. Col. Julie Churchman, 116th MDG chief nurse administrator. During the scored evaluation, the minimum standard was far surpassed.”

“That doesn’t happen by accident. It’s one of the things we all practice,” added Col. Louis Perino, the 116th’s chief of aerospace medicine. “It looks like a lot of running around, but it’s a very well-orchestrated dance that’s happening as we back the trailers up, drop the doors, and set up the site.”

When the exercise ended, the Airmen had not only saved the lives of all the simulated casualties they triaged and treated, they also earned perfect scores on their evaluation from the Joint Interagency Training and Education Center (JITEC), Camp Dawson, W.Va., observers who watched the teams progress through their various tasks.

“The Georgia Guard team is a standard for all the teams I’ve seen in the United States,” said Capt. Billie Jo Hoffman, JITEC lead medical inspector. “We have what we call best-practices, and in almost every category for the medical section, the 116th and 165th Medical groups had a perfect best practice.”

Information and photos compiled by Master Sgt. Roger Parsons, 116th ACW Public Affairs,

and Tech. Sgt. Chuck Delano, 165th AW Public Affairs

Story filed by the Georgia Department of Defense Public Affairs Office