Photo By Sgt. Chris Stephens | U.S. Army Spc. Phillip Davis of the Georgia National Guard’s 810th Engineer Company...... read more read more
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CHOPPEE COMPLEX, S.C. - The Southeast has seen it before. A hurricane comes rolling through and the National Guard is called into action to support those in need.
And the Georgia National Guard answered the call.
Vigilant Guard is a series of federally funded disaster-response drills conducted by National Guard units working with federal, state and local emergency management agencies and first responders. Elements of the 201st Homeland Response Force answered the call for Vigilant Guard and provided support all over South Carolina for the exercise March 9 and 10.
“This exercise is important, because we don’t practice as much as we need to,” said Brig. Gen. Joe Jarrard, Georgia adjutant general. “Our units are able to put their training into practice, and when a real disaster happens, they’ll be prepared to act.”
At the Choppee Complex in Georgetown, South Carolina, a simulated collapsed building was the scenario. Georgia National Guard units participating included the 138th Chemical Company, 179th Military Police Company, 810th Engineer Company, Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 201st Homeland Response Force, and 116th Medical Company.
Each unit had its focus in the exercise ranging from decontamination, medical support, entry-point security or various engineer tasks.
For the Swainsboro-based 810th Engineer Company, the scenario called for finding victims and getting them the medical attention they needed. Their work called for shoring walls, cutting through metal, breaching walls and using ropes to get into the building vertically.
“This is the best kind of training our unit can get,” said Staff Sgt. Nick Ives, NCOIC of the company’s operations center. “Any time you can use a real building to put your skills into practice serves to your advantage.”
While people weren’t really inside the school during the controlled demolition, units had to act as if they were, pulling out plastic dummies from the rubble.
Throughout the exercise, the engineers were focused on safety as the building really had areas that were dangerous. Every step was calculated as centimeters could have turned into inches, inches could have turned into feet and feet could have turned into an even worse disaster.
Live actors were also used for the scenario with their part being played for the decontamination, MP and medical units. The actors showed up at the entry-control point with injuries and makeup like that seen in the movies. From minor burns and broken bones to major injuries, Soldiers and Airmen saw everything.
Once at the entry-control point, Soldiers from the Marietta-based 178th MP Company controlled those who came in as Airmen from the Warner Robins-based 116th Medical Company conducted triage to get those who needed more help seen quicker and pushed through the decontamination area.
“In a significant disaster, we have to be able to decon over 200 people per hour,” said Capt. Randall Boatner, commander of the 138th Chemical Company during the exercise. “We have three areas that victims can go through—ambulatory, non-ambulatory and technical. Each line is based on what the victims can do, with the ability to also get our own personnel through should something happen to them.”
In each line, victims had their clothes cut off (if needed) and were decontaminated as Soldiers and Airmen took care of them. After decontamination, doctors from the 116th Medical Company were there to treat the patients for their various injuries.
“This entire event is the culmination of knowing the level of expertise of your unit,” Boatner said. “From here, we will know what worked well for the unit and what things need to be improved on.”
As the exercise wrapped up, all units were confident in their ability to respond to a natural disaster if they needed to.
“This is as realistic as it gets,” Boatner said. “We learned a lot of things during the course of this exercise, but we also saw what our Soldiers could do and are confident that they can put their skills into practice should they ever need to.”
| Date Taken: | 03.10.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 03.12.2015 12:40 |
| Story ID: | 156774 |
| Location: | GEORGETOWN, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Hometown: | MARIETTA, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 98 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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