MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, Ind. - Members of U. S. Army North are converging on central and southern Indiana to conduct and participate in U. S. Northern Command’s Vibrant Response 11.1 exercise March 11-19.
The exercise revolves around a scenario in which an improvised radiological dispersing device, or “dirty bomb,” spreads radioactive material in and around a major metropolitan area in the United States.
“All-in-all, we try to create an environment and mission sets for the training participants that is as close to the real thing as possible,” said Paul Condon, joint exercise planner, Army North.
The field training exercise will see more than 3,400 participants from the units that compose CCMRF 11.1 to train with each other as well as their local, state and federal partners as they respond to the catastrophic incident.
For Condon and the other members of the USARNORTH Team, the exercise is a pre-scripted series of events that is orchestrated like a finely tuned opera.
“It’s like a multi-act play,” said Condon. “Every night we have to reset the state of play to get ready for the next day’s training. The days are long but ultimately worth the effort when you see the young men and women demonstrate and hone their skills.”
Those skills include medical care, decontamination, search and rescue as well as air evacuation and logistical support to the primary agencies providing assistance.
“I’ve charged my planners with stretching the responding units to the max – and then some,” said Lt. Gen. Guy Swan III, commanding general, Army North and Fort Sam Houston. “I consider Army North as ‘America’s Insurance Policy,’ and we need to make sure that policy is ready and able to support our nation.”
Along with Condon, there have been hundreds of people involved in the planning process since around April 2010. People from U. S. Northern Command, Air Force North and the Indiana National Guard as well as people other federal agencies, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and contractors, like General Dynamics Information Technology.
“We have the lead,” said Condon, “but there is an overall planning effort to pull something like this exercise off.”
The Chemical, Biological, Nuclear, Radiological, high-yield Explosive Consequence Management Response Force, or CCMRF 11.1, led by U. S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Jonathan Treacy and his team from Joint Task Force – Civil Support, is testing their command and control operations during the annual training event.
Broken into three subordinate task forces, Task Force Operations; TF Aviation and TF Medical, the CCMRF 11.1 will perform a myriad of tasks associated with the Defense Department response to this type of disaster. Included in those efforts is the ability to medically evacuated injured and displaced persons as well as decontaminating those who have been affected by the notional radiological device. Additionally, units will work at realistic training sites managed and maintained by the Indiana National Guard.
“We use the superb facilities and expertise of the Indiana guard at both Camp Atterbury and MUTC (Muscatatuck Urban Training Center),” said Condon. “We invite and leverage participation of our local, state and national partners to replicate all the multiple layers of response to a national emergency.”