Photo By Frank O'Brien | Red Cross volunteers are supporting Air and Army National guard troops and civilians...... read more read more
GEORGETOWN, S.C. - Vigilant Guard South Carolina is a federally-funded exercise fostering cooperation between federal, state, and local emergency management agencies and first responders across South Carolina, March 3-12, 2015. Over 5,000 civilians from emergency service agencies and 2,000 Airmen and Soldiers from the National Guard are participating in the exercise.
Sam Hodge, Georgetown County's emergency management director, volunteered to host the exercises after observing similar drills last year. Hodge hopes to better prepare the community by partnering with other agencies.
Hodge said Vigilant Guard shows the potential of partnerships and relationship building from the local level right up to federal.
“Our volunteer partner agencies…are a big part of this exercise. We’re using all of our NGAs,” Hodge said.
The joint military-civilian regional training exercise tests the ability of the National Guard to support operations based on simulated emergency scenarios resulting from the landfall of a major hurricane - collapsed buildings, stranded civilians, public disorder and mass casualties. Exercises are being conducted all over South Carolina with National Guard support from neighboring states: Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and Kentucky. Similar Vigilant Guard exercises are held nationwide annually with locally-specific simulated disasters such as earthquakes and blizzards.
Vigilant Guard South Carolina is being closely watched by leaders in Columbia, S.C., Washington, D.C., and several foreign nations.
Maj. Gen. Robert E. Livingston, Jr., the Adjutant General of South Carolina, was in Georgetown March 9 to showcase the region’s response capabilities for Army Gen. Frank Grass, Chief, National Guard Bureau, along with a platoon-sized element of senior military officers from around the U.S. and distinguished visitors.
In addition to groups like the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army, Georgetown County Emergency Management acts as a liaison between the State Emergency Management Division and other first responders for planning, response, and recovery operations during natural disasters.
One of those volunteer groups was the USO which is supporting more than 2,000 Air and Army National Guard troops participating in Vigilant Guard South Carolina. Barbara Livingston, spouse of the adjutant general for South Carolina, represented the USO advisory council.
“Bob has been doing this since we got married,” said Barbara Livingston, speaking of her husband. “I’ve heard about it, and now I finally get to see it. All the coordination is phenomenal.”
Coordination such as that between military and civilian medical personnel responding in the event of a large- scale medical emergency.
Dr. David Callaway, a former Marine Corps division surgeon, was at Georgetown County Airport leading operations of MED-1, a first-of-its-kind in the world mobile hospital. MED-1 can deploy from its home in Charlotte, N.C., providing emergency medical care to any large-scale, localized emergency - solving dynamic problems with innovative solutions.
“We have a stronger medical presence than the Air or Army National Guard,” said Callaway speaking on the role of his team on responding to mass casualty events. “With some non-government organizations, they don’t feel comfortable jumping in…they wait for the military to give them orders. We look for gaps you (the National Guard) might have that we can fill.”
One of those possible gaps is a “surge” - an influx of patients that need to be triaged before being evacuated to local hospitals. Callaway is the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, director of the division of operational and disaster medicine. He and his team, many of whom are veterans, are capable of adjusting operations to fit the tempo of casualties brought in by National Guard helicopters and local search and rescue teams.
“But ultimately it all comes down to staff NCOs executing the mission,” said Callaway, referring to the military’s non-commissioned officer corps, known as the backbone of the armed forces. NCOs have led Airmen and Soldiers in successfully executing the mission.
Successfully executing the mission is also the focus of U.S. Air Force Capt. Cassandra Richardson, 169th Medical Group, South Carolina Air National Guard. Richardson is a critical care nurse from McEntire Joint National Guard Base, and as a civilian, an assistant nurse manager for an intensive care unit. She trained with Georgetown firefighters during a mass casualty and hazardous materials scenario March 8, at the Choppee Recreational Complex.
“This is not my first rodeo,” said Richardson, a 15-year veteran, “but this exercise is one of the better ones.”
In her hypothetical training scenario, a tornado had struck a nursing home. Medical personnel from the 169th Medical Group, the S.C. State Guard, and Georgetown Fire Department evaluated casualties, provided first aid and medically evacuated survivors for further care.
“What’s important to us as medical providers is how to triage - to weed out what’s not important,” said Richardson. “One of the things we learned from the fire department was how to get casualties out of a damaged building,” she added, describing working hand-in-hand with a civilian agency.
Successful partnerships between military and civilians is a sentiment echoed by many of the exercise participants.
Captain Shon Hamilton, a firefighter with Oconee County Emergency Services, is a member of the South Carolina Helicopter and Aquatic Rescue Team (SC-HART). Hamilton brought to the exercise his experience in multiple specialized search and rescue mission across the east coast, including Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
“We coordinate through the National Guard,” said Hamilton. “It’s (Vigilant Guard) been wonderful training that simulates real world conditions. One of the missions we would perform during a hurricane is rescuing people stranded out on islands.”
The 18-man, and one-dog, team conducted exercises - hoists - at Hobcaw and Pawleys Island, often alongside the South Carolina and Georgia National Guards, and the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command. On March 7, to showcase their quick rescue capabilities and for inter-group bragging rights, SC-HART completed over 102 hoists in less than four hours.
One of the law enforcement participants, Lt. T.L. Staub with the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office, has been coordinating with the Air National Guard to provide security during the exercise.
“This is my second time working with the National Guard,” said Staub, who talked about the influx of new faces to Georgetown. “It’s always a learning experience because they’re coming from outside areas. One of the benefits of the exercise is that we get to see each other face-to-face. When we know each other, it helps our ability to respond in the event of an emergency.”
| Date Taken: | 03.10.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 03.10.2015 17:49 |
| Story ID: | 156566 |
| Location: | GEORGETOWN, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 215 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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