Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Katherine Dowd | Capt. Amy Elsey, 864th Personnel Detachment, Coraopolis, Pa., Army Reserve, briefs...... read more read more
CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind. — Nearly 9,000 soldiers, Marines, airmen and Department of Defense civilians will descend on central Indiana, July 24-Aug. 13 to exercise DoD’s ability to respond effectively to a catastrophic nuclear disaster in the homeland.
The Army Reserve 864th Personnel Detachment of Coraopolis, Pa., will be an integral part of this exercise and scenario during Vibrant Response 13, the largest DOD exercise of this type to date.
“The Vibrant Response 13 exercise provides collective and individual training for the soldiers in our unit,” said Lt. Col. Gregory Toth, officer-in-charge for the 864th Pers. Det.
Vibrant Response 13 is a national-level field training exercise (or command post exercise) for the Department of Defense’s Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear response enterprise. Led by U.S. Army North based at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, the training event is intended to exercise the ability to deploy, employ and sustain specialized military response forces upon the request of civilian authorities to save lives and relieve human suffering following a catastrophic CBRN incident.
The exercise will take place at various locations in Indiana, including the Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center and Muscatatuck Urban Training Complex, as well as at Fort Knox, Ky. The exercise features realistic venues, fire and smoke effects, mannequins and civilian role-players to simulate a demanding disaster environment.
Units from more than 40 locations throughout the United States will be participating, including U.S. Army North and Task Force 51, Fort Sam Houston, Texas; Joint Task Force – Civil Support, Fort Eustis, Va.; 31st Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Brigade, Alabama National Guard, Northport, Ala.
“We are augmenting the 167th Theater Sustainment Command during Joint Reception Command Operations,” said Toth.
The 167th TSC is a theater sustainment command out of Fort McClellan, Ala. The 864th is working with them to provide support for establishing and maintaining a central location for initial entry of personnel participating in the exercise. The Joint Reception Center accounts for all military participants in exercise Vibrant Response 13.
Federal military forces may be employed if requested by a state and approved by the federal government. These specialized response forces include the 5,200-person defense CBRN response force, which has the initial response capability to provide search and rescue, decontamination, medical, aviation, communications and logistical support.
Two smaller specialized federal military forces of 1,500 personnel each are designed to provide an initial response and accept additional forces to save and sustain lives. The event marks the first confirmation exercise for the third response force. The force consists of National Guard units that would be federalized if called upon for a catastrophic response.
The three federal military forces are part of DOD’s tiered CBRN response structure that provides the nation with a dedicated, trained, ready, scalable and tailorable response capability. The tiered response structure also includes state-based civil support teams and regionally based CBRN enhanced response force packages and homeland response forces. A number of these units will participate in the exercise, as will teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Technical Nuclear Forensics Task Force.
The Department of Defense has long had the mission of supporting civilian agencies in responding to disasters. The Department of Homeland Security has developed a series of national planning scenarios for a variety of hazards that provide a baseline of assumptions to be used by agencies at all levels to develop and assess their readiness and response plans. The Vibrant Response scenario is based on one of those national planning scenarios.
“Our soldiers really benefit from participating in Vibrant Response 13,” said Staff Sgt. Andre Lewis, human resources specialist, 864th Pers. Det. “It’s especially good for our soldiers who haven’t deployed or used this particular tracking system. It gives them a chance to have hands-on training and to learn how it’s done. The exercise is great training for everyone involved.”
| Date Taken: | 08.10.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 08.10.2012 12:09 |
| Story ID: | 92986 |
| Location: | CAMP ATTERBURY, INDIANA, US |
| Hometown: | CORAOPOLIS, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 175 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Pennsylvania Army Reserve provides support to Vibrant Response 13, by SFC Katherine Dowd, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
