Photo By Christopher Stanis | Col. Karl Kirchner (left), 301st Maneuver Enhancement Brigade (MEB) commander,...... read more read more
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. - It was 4:30 in the morning on a Tuesday. While most people were nestled in deep slumber, the 301st Maneuver Enhancement Brigade (MEB) was coordinating clean up and rescue efforts after a nuclear bomb detonated in Columbus, Ohio.
Soldiers dashed between rooms of the large dome tent – also known as a deployable rapid assembly shelter (DRASH) – used as a command post. They passed and received information on the situation. Inside the tactical operation center (TOC) staff officers monitored the spread of contamination.
Are you awake now? Don’t worry. This was only an exercise.
The 301st MEB, an Army Reserve brigade headquartered at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, conducted a home-station digital command post exercise (DCPX) June 10-12 to test its mission command capabilities in preparation for the U.S. Army North-led Vibrant Response exercise set for later this summer. Vibrant Response engages participating forces in a large-scale domestic terrorism scenario. Historically, the exercise simulates an attack involving nuclear weapons.
Though this was just an exercise, brigade leadership stressed the gravity of the situation. Inside the TOC, 301st MEB Command Sgt. Maj. Wayne Brewster belted at the staff.
“Treat this exercise like the real thing. A hundred thousand are dead. Move with that sense of purpose.”
The scenario for this exercise was designed to be similar to what the brigade expects to confront at Vibrant Response, which Col. Karl Kirchner, 301st MEB commander, explained is an emergency deployment readiness exercise. Suggesting this is only the beginning for the brigade.
“VR 14 is the validating event for us to assume the C2CRE-Alpha mission Oct. 1 [2014],” Kirchner said.
C2CRE, or Command and Control CBRN Response Enterprise, is part of the homeland defense mission entrusted to U.S. Northern Command; CBRN stands for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear. Sparring any more technical details, the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, prompted the Department of Defense (DoD) to activate U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) to provide command and control for homeland defense efforts and support to local, state and federal civil authorities, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in the event of future large-scale attacks on U.S. soil.
Army Reserve units do not regularly have the time and opportunity to conduct TOC operations training. The last time the 301st MEB had this opportunity was at a war fighter exercise in 2013. For this reason, Kirchner and his staff developed the DCPX to test their readiness level prior to the Vibrant Response exercise.
“I knew there would be a lot of cobwebs and rust since doing War Fighter last year,” said Kirchner. “That’s why we’re doing this, so we can hopefully work the kinks out before VR.”
The MEB employed the help of Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s Mission Training Complex (MTC) to develop a fluid, reactive scenario, one of which the Brigade’s lead planners did not know the next moves.
Maj. Martin Lee, the intelligence officer for the 301st MEB, was a key proponent in coordinating with the MTC’s military analysts for scenario development.
“The MTC helped us think through things we didn’t think about before,” said Lee, adding that the MTC is an invaluable tool in helping units improve their functions. The analogy of the Bionic Man was used in discussion – the job of the MTC is to make a unit faster, stronger, smarter.
With the DCPX behind them, the MEB staff has returned to their daily mission of managing a doctrinally plug-and-play brigade.
“The 301st will still have a brigade to command – a [brigade support battalion], a chemical battalion, two engineer battalions – with other training requirements throughout the year,” noted Kirchner, who rattled off a slew of acronyms for events like Warrior Exercise, Combat Support Training Exercise, National Training Center and Joint Readiness Training Center.
But for the 301st MEB headquarters, the focus will remain on CBRN warrior tasks and the somber reality of the mission. As Kirchner put it, “The brigade will be on a 96-hour alert, meaning four days to be boots on ground at the disaster site with a mission command center set up. We have to be ready to assume the [C2CRE] mission Oct. 1.”
| Date Taken: | 06.13.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 07.22.2014 00:02 |
| Story ID: | 136838 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 578 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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