A unique training center for a critical mission

Photo By Sgt. Brandon Anderson | Arial view of the flooded village at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in North Vernon, Ind. Vibrant Response is a major field training exercise conducted by the U.S. Northern Command and led by U.S. Army North. Approximately 5,000 service members and civilians from the military and other federal and state agencies throughout the country are training to respond to a catastrophic domestic incident. As a component of U.S. Northern Command, Army North coordinates timely federal and military response to disasters in the homeland to help the American people in a time of need. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Brandon Anderson 13th Public Affairs Detachment/Released)  

MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, INDIANA, UNITED STATES

08.06.2014

Story by Maj. Steven Miller 

7th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, Ind. – While driving north on Country Road 425 in southern Indiana it is easy to be transfixed by the idyllic scenery. Tall evergreens line both sides of the road and beyond there are miles of cornfields. Though the road is nearly as straight as it can be with a few gentle hills you tend to drive slowly to take in the simple beauty around you.

Just one mile north of U.S. Highway 50 the scene changes dramatically. Cresting a final rise in the road you begin to see strewn across a clearing destroyed cars, a motorcycle caught in the guardrail, scrap metal, building material, and clothes. Lots of clothes scattered over a wide area. In the distance you begin to see damaged buildings. And more clothes. It is clear that something horrible has happened here.

For the past seven years this has been the scene here for three weeks every summer for Vibrant Response. This place, near the borders of Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky is a singularly unique venue for disaster response training. It is the Muscatatuk Urban Training Center, or MUTC.

Vibrant Response 14 is a major field training exercise conducted by US Northern Command and led by US Army North. U.S. Army North conducts Vibrant Response 14 to confirm the operational readiness and tactical capabilities of major elements of the Department of Defense's specialized forces designed to respond to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) incidents in support of local, state and federal civilian agencies.

Forces that make up the Defense CBRN Response Force and the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives Response Enterprise came to MUTC this summer to validate their ability to respond to a disaster. The DCRF and C2RE are part of the country’s tiered response force to CBRN disasters in the homeland.

“I find it difficult to believe that there is anyplace that can better simulate that environment [a nuclear detonation in a heavily populated area] than here,” said Maj. Gen. Charles Gailes, the commanding general of Task Force 51 and deputy exercise director.

Vibrant Response 14 brought together military units from both the active, National Guard and Reserve components of all services in the Department of Defense. In addition to the military forces, civilian officials from local first-responders thru FEMA participated in the exercise. Vibrant Response is a rare opportunity for all of these agencies to train together and prepare for what could be the worst day in America’s history.

All of these elements came together to provide a whole-of-government response to a disaster, said Gailes.

MUTC might be the perfect place for such training. It is in the middle of America making it relatively easy to get to from anywhere. There is a railhead at Camp Atterbury 45 miles away. The Indianapolis International Airport serves as the aerial port of embarkation and debarkation 80 miles away.

MUTC replicates a small town. It has a middle Eastern market place complete with live animals. There are collapsed buildings and parking garages, rubble piles, a hospital, a school building, an embassy, places of worship, a soccer field, a flooded neighborhood, helicopter landing zones, an emergency broadcast system, a fully functioning radio station, and a few hundred role players who act as citizens affected by the incident.

All of these things force training units to deal with a nearly unlimited number of variables in the physical and information environments. If a unit or agency is slow to respond to the incident or responds inappropriately, the “citizens” are affected, the radio station alters its programming, the local “journalists” report what they see, and the simulated social media network changes tone. All of this adds a level of stress to the training unit or agency that forces the leadership to alter their public information effort to counter the damage done in the response.

“We in the Department of the Army particularly need to continue this operational training timeline so that we can be available and be ready to support the American citizens should any kind of a catastrophe or, God forbid, any kind of terrorist attack occur,” said Maj. Gen. Burt Francisco, commanding general 46th Military Police Command, Michigan National Guard, and commanding general, Task Force 46.

TF-46 is one of the nation’s two CBRN Response Elements charged with providing support to civil authorities in the event of a crisis. Task Force 46 is made up of National Guard Soldiers from Michigan, Alabama, Kentucky, and Florida and is one of the three task forces that trained during Vibrant Response 14.

In the event of a catastrophic real world disaster military forces support response efforts in the homeland, local officials and first responders always lead in a crisis and, if local and state capabilities are overwhelmed, federal assistance can be requested. That request can include capabilities that only the DoD can bring, such as mass chemical decontamination.
“The CBRN response enterprise has been organized where we have both a National Guard and an active military partnership. We all understand the roles and responsibilities and we need to continue to train so that in the event that something happens we can have a nearly seamless integration with the state,” said Francisco.

• Date Taken: 08.06.2014
• Date Posted: 08.06.2014 13:09
• Story ID: 138463
• Location: MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, INDIANA, US
• Hometown: BERRYVILLE, ARKANSAS, US
• Hometown: FORT CAVAZOS, TEXAS, US
• Hometown: FOSTER, RHODE ISLAND, US
• Hometown: KILLEEN, TEXAS, US
• Hometown: LANSING, MICHIGAN, US