LANCASTER, Pa. - Pennsylvania Army and Air Guard members of the Chemical Burn Enhanced Response Force Package participated in a weeklong training event at Millersville University and the Lancaster County Public Safety Training Center, July 21 to 27.
The Guard members worked together with CERFP Soldiers from New England and civilian emergency response professionals to enhance their readiness to respond to large-scale disasters.
"We have the ability to do search and extraction, mass decontamination, medical triage, treatment and prep for transport," said Army Capt. Justin Wolfe, CERFP operations officer.
"We do have some nuclear power plants, we do have chemical plants, we do have some other industrial hazards that exist within the state, so…if a tornado did go through and hit Three Mile Island or some chemical plant, the governor has the authority to activate us to respond as quickly as possible," he said.
For this exercise scenario, an outbreak of tornadoes around the state overwhelmed state and local first responders, so the governor called on the Pennsylvania National Guard's CERFP team to clear a collapsed building of casualties, provide first aid and decontamination, and evacuate them to safety.
The team set up three training lanes, which consisted of large tents filled with equipment to decontaminate victims and triage their injuries, before moving them as quickly as possible to safety.
"This exercise, we're not doing the same thing every day. We're doing a lot of cross training, experimenting with new techniques and learning them," said Army Lt. Col. Frederick Tady, CERFP commander.
"We have more flexibility during this exercise, so we're making the most of it," he said.
The CERFP team - comprised of 186 members - usually trains at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, so the chance to train at LCPSTC provided new challenges and greatly enhanced the quality of the experience, Wolfe said.
"The best thing about this exercise is the availability of going to a new site," said Sgt. Michael Murphy, CERFP assistant operations noncommissioned officer.
"Before this event we always had to go up to…the same site, where we already knew the layout. We get to plan and prep differently instead of knowing exactly where we're going this time," he said.
Murphy explained how the LCPSTC offered a more flexible training environment that could be used to simulate a wider range of real-world scenarios such as urban, suburban, or rural areas due to the large open area and generic looking buildings.
Normally, training conducted with civilians are theoretical "table top" exercises and one of the best opportunities of this exercise was to involve the whole team in hands-on training at a site specifically designed for search and rescue operations, Wolfe said.
"Our biggest goal for this mission is to try to work in with the first responders. We're working with South Central Task Force to start building relationships with them and learn how the civilian first responders work in these situations, and also to let them see how the military works in these situations," he said.
Working closely with civilian professionals in the field, with every section leader on the military side having a civilian counterpart, gives the Soldiers and Airmen a different perspective that will be useful in a real-world situation, Tady said. The sections, in addition to the command group, include: search and extraction, ambulatory, non-ambulatory, technical, and medical, Airmen staff the medical section.
"We come together, it doesn't matter if you're an Air guardsmen or Army guardsman, we work together very well. We work together and build relationships and teams with those units," he said, describing the seamless integration of the medical section into the CERFP team.
The CERFP is not a permanent unit, but rather a team of volunteers from units whose modular occupational specialties reflect the skill set needed to function in the sections within the CERFP team.
While all the participants brought considerable skills and experience to the exercise, they rarely have the chance to practice as a team with the full range of equipment.
"The students were really attentive, they have a willingness to learn," said Robert Enterline, a civilian structural collapse instructor.
"Training once a year at this if that's the case is probably not enough to stay proficient, just like anything else, if you don't do it enough, you don't stay proficient," he said.
Enterline, a retired welder and fireman, taught ropes, knots and repelling for the weekend. He and the other search and extraction trainers each have over 24 years of firefighting experience.
Another essential group of civilians to the exercise were more than 25 actors hired to play casualties of the building collapse.
"I was just looking for temp work on Craigslist and this looked interesting and I guess kind of patriotic as well," said Brendan Krick, one of the actors.
Some actors really embraced their roles, screaming, shouting for missing loved ones and contorting their faces into a grimace of pain. The life-like or at least horror movie-like wounds, including gashes dripping with fake blood, helped actors and responders alike put themselves into the scene.
"It's much better than my other job as a cashier, I feel like I'm helping something important happen and I normally don't feel that way about employment," said Krick.
Throughout the training, morale remained high for both military and civilian participants despite intense heat and humidity, compounded by the events taking place on acres of blacktop and several thunderstorms, which interrupted training.
"The most fulfilling part of this for me is seeing the motivation and enthusiasm of the Soldiers to do their jobs and the teamwork is just incredible and it never fails to amaze me, the level of professionalism the Soldiers and Airmen on this team exhibit at all times," Tady said.
He also noted that all CERFP Soldiers and Airmen volunteered for the team in addition to their regular duties, and the training went smoothly largely due to the excellent support from Millersville University, which provided housing and other facilities, in addition to LCPTC, which hosted most of the actual training events.
"They deserve that luxury that we have here," he said. "I think they appreciate it and I think so far the motivation and enthusiasm has been very high and I expect that to continue throughout the rest of the exercise."
Thankfully, all past activations of the CERFP have been standby, including the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, where the chemical decontamination team deployed as backup. The CERFP team prepares for the future by continuing to train twice a year to maintain their skills and plans include becoming air-mobile so they can deploy as far away as the west coast.
Though the future will present many challenges, the Pennsylvania National Guard's CERFP team will be there to provide us with another layer of protection in the event of a large-scale disaster.