CAMP DENALI, Alaska - The Alaska National Guard's Joint Operation Center, in conjunction with Air National Guard and various civilian entities are getting full-scale exercise training through Vigilant Guard 2010.
Vigilant Guard is a premiere joint training exercise designed to enhance interoperability between federal, state, and local volunteer agencies in case of a disaster.
As is the case for any state disaster, the Joint Operations Center is relied upon by the state for direct coordination with the state Emergency Operations Center to assist the state in responding to state emergencies.
"What we do is when the state sends over a specific request, we take the information that they are asking for, have a quick meeting with our operations officers and future-operations officers and make a determination as to whether the Guard has the assets available to support the mission," said Lt. Col. David McPhetres, Joint Operations Center battle captain. "Once it is determined we can support the request, we notify the state and they officially task us, then we plan it and put out a fragmentary order and send our people out to support."
Exercises such as Vigilant Guard not only allow for full-scale training, they also allow for beneficial hands-on training that mirrors possible real world disasters.
"Vigilant Guard is extremely important because we have to practice and work with the state in order to improve the methods in which we do things," said Sgt. 1st Class Robert Lauer, Joint Operations Center non-commissioned officer in charge. "Practicing on an exercise scenario and being able to work through issues and identify problems that we have so that we can in-turn fix them will greatly benefit us when we have a real life incident."
As with any large-scale exercise that brings different organizations together, the Joint Operations Center has seen its share of challenges, but leadership is confident in the Vigilant Guard participant's ability to work together to meet the final goal.
"Some of the challenges are working with people from other states who have come in to support the state of Alaska and the National Guard," said McPhetres. "There's learning and training going on at the same time, so it's been great. Initially there's been some chaos, but it is tapering down into a bit of a rhythm so people are getting into kind of a roll and used to working together. My main goal for Vigilant Guard is that we are better able to support the Governor and the state of Alaska in an emergency."