Photo By 1st Lt. Anna Doo | Sgt. Maj. Richard Smith receives guidance from Xylina Allender on the Emergency...... read more read more
SANTA FE, N.M. – The New Mexico National Guard conducted a train-the-trainer opportunity for a Web-based system used for simulating scenarios and exercises. The Emergency Management Staff Trainer (EMST) is used by multiple agencies as an online tool to walk through different disaster response scenarios. Members of the New Mexico Army and Air National Guard, as well as the Mississippi Army National Guard, were shown the capabilities of the system in a weeklong classroom-based environment.
The EMST can be used to build repeatable events allowing for realistic training conducted by the major commands through the phases of the crawl, walk and run methodology. This is the ability to learn a set of tasks, implement and execute the tasks or steps in a process, and then respond to unforeseen inputs.
Lt. Col. Patrick Campos, 93rd Brigade executive officer, said, “The Emergency Management Staff Trainer is a closed, Internet-based facilitation system for Joint Forces Headquarters, commanders, and subordinates to exercise mission command using their own internal [standard operating procedures] when exercising their commands, staff officers and noncommissioned officers in consequence management of natural disasters, cyber-attacks, terrorist attacks, and CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear) and explosives events when providing military support to civil authorities.”
Those attending the training on the Web-based software learned how to navigate the system and screens, as well as how to build and manage training packages and scenarios. Campos said that the trained and certified personnel can now use the EMST as the primary facilitation tool to create training events and control the pace of the crawl, walk and run technique.
The week’s training culminated in a weekend event titled Operation Aztec III. Participants from 93rd Brigade and 111th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade used the Digital Reporting System within the EMST during Operation Aztec III to digitally communicate with the Joint Forces Headquarters’ joint staff.
Both training opportunities were conducted to build a foundation for an upcoming Vigilant Guard exercise. The Vigilant Guard exercises occur in different states each year and are created in order to test the communication, collaboration, and capability of the resident National Guard, local, regional, state and federal emergency response entities.
Training for the EMST program is provided by Critical Ops. Dan Maurer, operations officer for Critical Ops, said he has seen many states implement the online system following his team’s in-person training. Maurer said he has received positive feedback on being able to run packages multiple times with differing inputs and personnel in order to replicate a real-world scenario where there is rarely a script.
Two of the students had already been using the EMST in their state and had built a few scenarios. Master Sgt. Cornelius Williams, the Mississippi Army National Guard’s antiterrorism and force protection noncommissioned officer, said his state has built active shooter scenarios as well as natural disaster events such as flooding. His colleague, Matt Martin, emergency manager for the Mississippi Army National Guard, agreed, saying the online tool has been beneficial for their state.
The students walked away with an understanding of the value of using the EMST to their organization. The ability to run technology-based scenarios saves money, time, travel and a multitude of other resources. Participants in a scenario can be plugged into the online tool across the state, the country or even the world. The virtual table-top exercises allow for movement of personnel, equipment, and real-time results to decisions made by those logged into the system.
The exercises conducted in the EMST can be saved, re-started, tweaked for different challenges, shared to the global community, or scrapped all at the click of mouse. The uses for this virtual tool are only limited by the imaginations of those now trained to create and run scenarios within it.
Those in attendance were additionally tasked with sharing their knowledge to their colleagues in order for maximum participation in virtual disaster preparedness.
| Date Taken: | 07.28.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 08.13.2015 15:12 |
| Story ID: | 173083 |
| Location: | SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO, US |
| Web Views: | 382 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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