National Guard troops participating in Ardent Sentry disaster drills

WASHINGTON - A perfect storm of simulated disasters continues unfolding in parts of the United States as National Guard Soldiers join other military and Defense Department members in tuning disaster-response processes ahead of hurricanes and wildfires.

A sampling of National Guard involvement:

• In South Carolina, the National Guard is conducting field training at multiple locations in response to a hurricane and hazardous material events. In Varnsville, the 108th Chemical Company provided decontamination while the 118th Infantry Regiment furnished security during a weekend exercise. Staff Sgt. Charles Jones, a decontamination platoon member working in the final detection phase of a drill in Ridgeland, said,  "We're getting a lot of training. If we have to respond for a real disaster, we'll know exactly what to do. And that is why we are here."
• In Florida, Guard members from the Sunshine State worked with Georgia National Guard Soldiers to assist first responders from the state and localities in dealing with simulated hurricanes. Troops also assisted with hazardous materials scenarios. These drills were part of Vigilant Guard, a component of Ardent Sentry. "Interagency training (such as Vigilant Guard) is vital to not only hone skills, but to work n communication and cooperation in the face of crisis," said Capt. Jeff Strickland of Miami Dade Fire Rescue Department.

Ardent Sentry, an annual exercise run by the U.S. Northern Command, will put participants in increasingly complex scenarios, said Joe Bonnet, the North American Aerospace Defense Command and Northcom training and exercises director. He spoke earlier this month with American Forces Press Service.

Ardent Sentry is one of the dual commands' three "Tier 1" exercises, designed to train the command headquarters and its components for their mission of providing defense support of civil authorities, on request, Bonnet explained.

The scenarios challenge Army Gen. Charles H. Jacoby Jr., the NORAD and Northcom commander, and his staffs to monitor disasters or potential disasters, anticipate requests for defense support that could augment civilian first responders and posture the military to move quickly when the taskings come down, he said.

"This is a really big exercise," Bonnet said. "The NORAD and Northcom headquarters and components play, the National Guard plays, [U.S.] Strategic Command plays, and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency plays."

In addition, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator W. Craig Fugate will lead FEMA's response, which will include participants from the FBI, Coast Guard, Energy Department and other interagency partners, he said.

The exercise incorporates a command post exercise at the NORAD and Northcom headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., and at its service component headquarters: U.S. Air Forces Northern at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.; U.S. Army North at Fort Sam Houston, Texas; U.S. Marine Forces Northern Command in New Orleans; and the newly established Navy North, part of U.S. Fleet Forces Command.

Ardent Sentry 2013 also includes field training exercises that extend from the waters south of Alaska to the southern tip of Florida.

It kicked off May 6 with one of those first scenarios: a notional break-in at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., which compromised its nuclear weapons arsenal. The 341st Missile Wing, part of 20th Air Force, which serves as U.S. Strategic Command's response task force, responded along with about 200 FBI agents to practice their procedures to recover and secure the stolen weapons, Bonnet said.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard was busy working with its Canadian counterparts, conducting a search-and-rescue exercise in the waters north of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Although Ardent Sentry is one of Northcom's longest-running exercises, the scenarios become increasingly complex each year, Bonnet said.

Next year's exercise, already in the planning stages, is expected to be the biggest ever. Bonnet envisions a series of earthquakes and aftershocks that strike without notice, initially in Anchorage, Alaska, then southerly along the Ring of Fire.

"This is going to be a West Coast, no-notice, major, complex catastrophe," he said, accompanied by other fictional natural and manmade disasters that require military support.

Exercises such as Ardent Sentry are the key to ensuring the military has the procedures and decision-making processes in place to support civil authorities as needed, Bonnet said. He noted, for example, the vast difference in the military's response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and Hurricane Sandy last year.

"If you compare them, the difference is the exercise and training program," he said. "It is really through exercising and training that you have built and nurtured those trusted partnerships that are vital to working effectively together in a crisis."

And, "unless you work together before the crisis," Bonnet added, "you don't have an opportunity to build the relationships that allow you to do that."

With hurricane season to kick off June 1 and wildfires expected to increase during the summer, Bonnet said, late spring is a perfect time to fine-tune these procedures.

"This is our mission rehearsal for the hurricane season," he said, one that prepares DOD and its local, state and federal partners to respond together.

"These are really our trusted partners," Bonnet said. "Exercising together ensures we have all dusted off our manuals and our playbooks and refined our procedures to make sure everybody is on the same wavelength and ready to work together as required as we go into the hurricane and wildfire seasons."