NAVAL AIR STATION JACKSONVILLE, Fla., - More than 200 Soldiers and Airmen of Kennesaw's Joint Task Force 781 (JTF), their Florida Guard counterparts and the naval hospital and Navy Region Southeast Regional Operations Center here, held joint homeland defense training mission today.
Also participating in the training were the Jacksonville County Sheriff's Office and Naval Security Department. In addition, here is MEDEVAC assistance from the Navy's Helicopter Squadron 11 and Life Flight from Jacksonville's Baptist Hospital and more than 100 Sailors, Marines and local residents playing the roles of disaster victims.
Observing the event, according to the naval air station Public Affairs Office, were officials with the city of Jacksonville's Emergency Management Agency, the Navy Installations Command and Joint Interagency Training and Education Center, East - JITEC-E - out of West Va., and the Response International Group "Partnering with the naval air station is something we've looked forward to," said Maj. Jeff Carlyle, JTF 781 commander.
"They've been quite accommodating, and they've really went all out to get the participants and that really enhances the training.
"Stressing our people and our processes is what an exercise like this is about," Carlyle added. "It really gives us another platform on which we can train, and it gets us out of our comfort zone."
NAS Jacksonville, said its commander, Capt. Jack Scorby Jr., is proud to host the multi-faceted exercise. He expected the cooperation and level of training to be superb, "and we look forward to the opportunity to conduct training like this in the future," he added.
Unlike a "no notice" exercise, whereby JTF personnel get that "middle of the night" call, this event put them already on the ground, ready and waiting.
"It's what we call a 'preposition scenario,'" said Capt. Philips Plourde, JTF 781's medical plans and operations officer. "In this case, the Florida JTF has asked us to assist with a 'notional' air show just in case a disaster happened…and of course, it does."
This training is different than most JTF 781 has done, and it "really offers us a great opportunity to work along side the Navy and the local agencies" said Command Sgt. Maj. Chuck Crews, the task force's senior enlisted leader. According to Crews, the JTF performs training about two to three times a year to help prepare its personnel for a real emergency.
JTF781 is Georgia's Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRNE) Enhanced Response Package (CERFP). It's comprised of Hinesville's 877th Engineer Company; Marietta's 248th Medical Company. 138th Chemical Company, 202nd Explosive Ordnance Disposal and 4th Civil Support Team; and the Air Guard's 116th Medical Group from Savannah also are participating. The JTF is part of Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Region 4, which covers not only Georgia, but also Alabama, Kentucky, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and of course Florida. If disaster strikes one part of those states, the others respond assist.
The exercise started in the early morning with members of the 202nd being called on by the Navy EOC to check out a bomb threat. Unit EOD technicians did a bomb sweep of the area where the air show was to be held. Their search turned up an IED in a building there, and they -along with sheriff's office bomb technicians- successfully defused and removed the device.
Later, about mid-day during the air show, a notional aircraft flew over the grandstands, releasing the biochemical Chloropicrin on the "spectators." The role players began panicking and running to nearby woods or tried to make their way to the base medical center. Others just sat in the stands, screaming and yelling for help, and some even had to be restraint by rescue personnel.
The JTF went into action along side its civilian counterparts and set up an incident response command post, a fatality extraction point, and medical and decontamination centers.
Lieutenant Ryan Gavant with the 138th Chemical Company explained that his people set up three decontamination lanes: one for those victims unable to walk by themselves, one for those who could and a specially equipped technical decontamination lane. Each lane included an undress area, a wash down area, monitoring tents and redress tents.
"Our folks have looked forward to working with the Georgia Guard," said Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Matthew Gustafson of the naval hospital decontamination team. "We're learning their procedures and gaining knowledge that'll certainly improve our own readiness.
While Gavant, Gustafson and their teams got ready, search and evacuation team and fatality recover teams geared up and headed into the area to assist the victims and ascertain what fatalities had happened.
As victims were brought in, medics with the 248th determined which patients need to go where, and then moved them, if needed, to the next higher level of treatment.
"Though this is an exercise, this scenario is highly possible at an air show" said Sgt. First Class Holly Muse, JTF 781's assistant operations and readiness NCO. She also acted as the assistant NOIC for this exercise. "In this way, we know what we do right, and what needs improvement.
"And there's always room for improvement in our business," she added.
As the exercise ended, Maj. Ken Hutnick, JTF project officer and the exercise command and control coordinator, said people expect a lot from the nation's emergency responders.
"Since 9/11, when disaster struck us here at home, Americans want a response and we give that to them," he said. Every time we conduct an exercise, like this one or any other, we get better at what we do. And that enables us to respond faster, and more prepared to meet any challenge."