Vigilant Guard 2018 Prepares Soldiers with Disaster Response Training in Real Time
Montana is Big Sky Country and a lot can happen there, especially when the Army National Guard plans a major training exercise before the onset of spring. In March of this year, the Montana Army National Guard was confronted with the possible cancellation of a major natural disaster response training when it was interrupted by an actual natural disaster. Always ready to face any problem, the Montana Guard and its partnering States confronted the challenge head on and simultaneously mitigated both the fictional and real-life disasters.
Vigilant Guard is a National Guard Bureau and U.S. Northern Command civil support exercise that partners with FEMA each year to provide natural disaster response training to local and federal agencies in each of the 10 FEMA regions. The 2018 Vigilant Guard training for FEMA Region VIII took place March 3–7 in Helena, Montana. It simulated a 7.5 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter near Hebgen Dam located in the southern region of the State.
“Exercises like these are extremely helpful; it helps us to establish a good working relationship with all of the different agencies involved from the local, state and federal level,” said COL David Chase, the region VIII Defense Coordinating Officer for U.S. Army North (Fifth Army), U.S. Northern Command. “The exercise also gives us a chance to work out our operating procedures in the event of a real-world mission.”
The Region VIII exercise was comprised of 57 local, State and federal government agencies. Army National Guard participants included the Montana Army National Guard’s 1049th Fire Fighting Technology Group (FFTG) and 83rd Civil Support Team (CST), the Idaho Army National Guard’s 101st CST, the Oregon Army National Guard’s CBRN Enhanced Response Force Package (CERFP), the Utah Army National Guard’s Homeland Response Force (HRF) and the Wyoming Army National Guard’s 84th CST and Joint Operations Center support staff.
Vigilant Guard is similar to other training exercises in that it gives Soldiers an opportunity to work with the same neighboring States and civilian agencies they would partner with in an actual emergency. That type of practiced teamwork will always prove beneficial when executing tasks in the wake of an actual disaster with real lives and property at stake.
Mitigating the Disaster
During the training, the 83rd CST was tasked with responding to fictional flooding in the community of Great Falls. Once on site, the unit worked to set up a chemical lane, conduct search and rescue and contain simulated radiation that had washed ashore from a nearby river.
As part of the scenario, the Montana Guard Soldiers responded to an incident where civilians – acting as role players – sustained injuries from chemical fumes. Given no advance information about the chemical, the members of the 83rd had to figure out the source and composition of the threat before moving forward. Having connected with an emergency management team from Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, the joint teams surveyed the building where the civilians had been injured.
The ad hoc squad went into the building and searched the area, discovering a 55-gallon drum that had been tipped over by the earthquake. At that point, they then conducted joint entries into the contaminated area, sending in two CST Soldiers and two first responders from the emergency management team.
“The squads would go in, scan the area, get samples, come out and bring it back to the laboratory,” said SGT Luke Hronek with the 83rd. “At the lab, they figured out the protocol to mitigate the chemical. Finally, they reentered to clean up and evacuate the victims.”
“That was pretty much the wrap for the first day,” he said.
Each day of the five-day training presented a new challenge. On the third day, the 83rd was faced with another complicated scenario.
“We responded to a radiation source that had washed up on the shore from the flooding,” SGT Hronek said. “We scanned the area and worked from a safe distance, using our equipment to figure out what it was.”
The CST Soldiers searched intensely and eventually identified four radiation sources floating amongst a lost shipment of medical waste.
“Once we were able to identify it, we went in and supported a hot zone. From there, we created a safe distance, which you do with radiation,” SGT Hronek said.
The Oregon CERFP team specializes in disaster response. The unit’s capabilities include decontamination, search and extraction, mass casualty triage, medical response, and overall command and control. The Oregon National Guard brought a total of 187 personnel to Toxic Lance, including CPT Tony Bagnall, the exercise battle captain for the tactical operations center who said the integration and facilitation with the Montana Army National Guard Soldiers was practically seamless.
“Some of our new [CERFP] personnel were not fully trained yet, so this exercise was a fantastic opportunity to get our new guys trained and up to the level they need to be,” said LTC Cary Gilman, battalion commander of 821st Troop Command.
SGT Hronek noted his satisfaction with his team’s work during the exercises. He said they collaborated well with their new teammates and that he observed the Soldiers readily sharing their chemical-mitigation expertise with the Air Force EMT members, who were less experienced in that particular skillset.
According to SGT Hronek, he and his unit are very familiar with these types of challenging scenario-based events. He said the 83rd travels to various locations throughout Montana each month during drills and confronts some type of CBRNE lane challenge. The Montana Soldiers were also participants at Vigilant Guard 2016 in Tacoma, Washington. That year’s event responded to a notional tsunami that threatened the State of Washington.
“It’s pretty similar to how we normally work, but with Vigilant Guard there was a new scenario each day,” he noted. “We were definitely busy.”
Mitigating Nature
There was no planning for the adverse winter conditions that struck Montana in late February of this year. Montana Governor Steve Bullock declared a winter storm emergency in Glacier and Golden Valley counties and on three Native American reservations.
Extreme cold and blizzards with drifting snow blanketed Northwestern and Southeastern Montana. The frigid temperatures proved fatal for much of the area’s cattle – a harsh reality for the bottom line of the region’s many ranchers.
It was amidst these same icy conditions and brutal cold that Army National Guard Soldiers completed their training tasks as part of Vigilant Guard.
“About a third of the way through our exercise, the State ended up in a real disaster,” said COL Lonnie Cook, Vigilant Guard exercise planner for the Montana Army National Guard. “The Department of Emergency Services had to pull out of the event. The Simulation Center and my folks had to take over their role. It’s a fluid element. You’ve got be able to flow and adapt. That was a major challenge, but we just had to flex, take care of the real-world and respond.”
SGT Joseph Johnson, ambulatory decontamination team leader with Oregon’s CERFP noted at least one silver lining in the presence of the extreme winter weather. “We do not get a lot of opportunities to train in cold climates like this, so this opportunity has allowed our team to develop and broaden their skillsets.”
In spite of the real-world emergency coinciding with the exercise, the Guard troops and leadership were able to adapt and remain focused on the requirements of the training exercise. No Soldiers were activated, but there were complications.
“North Dakota’s CST had to cancel due to weather conditions. The other States redirected teams to cover down on the loss of [the North Dakota] element,” COL Cook said. “The Oregon CERFP had to cancel a rubble pile event in Helena due to bad road conditions, and there was a vehicle accident during the exercise that caused damage to a trailer.”
Reflecting back over the year of planning and the end result of Vigilant Guard 2018 for Region VIII, COL Cook said, “I don’t think you ever get it to work as smooth as you want it. If I had to do it again, I would do it when we didn’t have another disaster. But [no matter what] you definitely keep the mass moving in the right direction. You always learn every time you do something. The nice thing about that [is] you can apply it back to your SOPs and multi-hazardous response plan.”
By working together and remaining steadfast in their focus, the National Guard Soldiers and their State, federal and local partners dealt well with the unexpected emergency and still completed a successful training exercise. They were forced to cope real-time with the same variable to which they were training to respond – nature.
By STAFF WRITER Matthew Liptak
