CAMP SANTIAGO, P.R. - A natural disaster is an unpleasant thought, but having a contingency plan should it occur is etched into the mindset of the National Guard.
This was the idea behind Exercise Vigilant Guard, which took place here this week. It brought together Guardmembers from West Virginia, the Virgin Islands, Arizona, New York, Michigan and Puerto Rico with state, federal, and local authorities to avert a pre-planned disaster.
Through the training, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, and New York Guard members made up task forces providing life support and property protection to different zones of the island.
New York executed the exercise from home, while North Carolina brought a senior officer to oversee operations.
"This is like insurance," said Army Brig. Gen. Antonio Vicens-Gonzalez, the adjutant general for the state. "It's better to have it and never use than needing it and never having it."
The North Carolina National Guard used the opportunity to prepare for its own Vigilant Guard, which it will host in 2011. The next Vigilant Guards will take place in Iowa June 18-24 and in Montana Sept. 15-17.
"This is an opportunity to bring (Guardmembers) together, pair our weak with our strong, so that we can come up with a better team," said Army Brig. Gen James Roy Gorham, commander of Joint Task Force Tarheel of the North Carolina National Guard.
Guard officials said Guardmembers walk a fine line between emotions during the exercise.
"Learning to be patient, and yet have a sense of urgency," said Command Sgt. Maj. Ernerst Boulton Jr., the command sergeant major for Joint Task Force Tarheel, who learned some of his lessons when he deployed to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. "It's important to get down, get your command-and-control set up, get your communications going, find out the layout of the area that you're going to be responsible for, and start making contact with your upper and lower units."
With so many moving parts in different agencies during the exercise, communication was key to success.
"We came here to show if we can work in a joint environment. Military, civil authorities, and right now we are doing that," said Lt. Col. Jose Rivera, the commander of Task Force Puerto Rico. "The important thing to do that is to set up a system of communication."
The state accomplished this by including civilian authorities in the planning and execution of the exercise.
"It doesn't seem like the old-fashioned 'stovepipe,'" said Col. Timothy Houser, deputy commander of JTF Tarheel, of the communication efforts by higher command. "There seems to be very good coordination within Puerto Rico itself between all these partners."
Even Vicens-Gonzalez was surprised at the outcome of the coordination.
"To my amazement, the municipalities are playing their role very, very aggressively," he said. "(We) see the city mayors being proactive."
Besides coordination, the obvious communication barrier between English-speaking and primarily Spanish-speaking Guardmembers was almost nonexistent, due to the tendency of Puerto Rican Guardmembers to be bilingual.
Rather, any difficulty lay the other way around. "Only because we're from North Carolina," joked Houser of the effect of his troops' Southern drawl on the language barrier. "They can't understand us. We can understand them just fine."