GULFPORT, Miss. - More than 100 participants from across the region teamed together to practice interagency coordination in response to maritime weapons of mass destruction (WMD) threats and natural disasters during exercise Marlinspike 2015 on April 1.
Civil Support Teams and state agencies were challenged to work together and effectively communicate as they responded and reacted to possible chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high explosive (CNE) threats on the Gulf Coast. The biggest asset the agencies used to accomplish their mission was the Mississippi Wireless Information Network (MSWIN) - a $320 million communication network that former governor Haley Barbour established in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The robust architecture of the MSWIN has disaster recovery features that provide reliable communications between multiple state agencies under extreme conditions such as hurricanes, ice storms and floods - a game-changing asset that prevents agencies from being restricted when primary communications are offline during catastrophic events.
Col. Lee Smithson, director of military support for the Mississippi National Guard (MSNG), said the exercise goes a long way in preparing Mississippi and its neighboring states for the 2015 hurricane season and other catastrophic events.
"At the end of the day, we serve the people of Mississippi," said Smithson. "The only way we can do that is by training and working together with all of our state and intrastate partners. This will validate our ability to work together."
Smithson said it's vital that agencies are not wasting valuable time figuring out how to communicate with each other during a natural disaster or CRBNE threats.
Besides a successful communication check between multiple state and federal agencies, another highlight of the exercise was the coordinated effort between Mississippi National Guard's 47th CST, Alabama National Guard's 46th CST, and Louisiana National Guard's 62nd CST to react and respond to potentially harmful substances found on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. The multi-CST exercise gave a chance for the teams to work with the MSNG's Joint Operations Center (JOC) - the focal point of the Guard's support to local and state authorities during emergency operations.
Capt. Heath Morgigno, operations officer for the 47th CST, said it's really important for his team to work with the JOC to build a confident working relationship and establish tactics, techniques and procedures.
"If you can work those things out ahead of time," said Morgigno, "you are way ahead of the game."
It's not often that CSTs can come together to train during an exercise of this size, explained Morgigno. The last time a training event was held of this magnitude was about six years ago.
Capt. Paul Mounts, a survey team leader for the 46th CST with over 18 years of service as an enlisted soldier and officer, said the exercise offered some challenging aspects for his team. His CST was faced with multiple land and water contamination threats to respond to, which required different load and travel plans to implement on aviation assets such as Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters, as well as boats. All of this was done while coordinating with different state and federal agencies, including local law enforcement.
"The unique thing about the National Guard is that we have the capability to tackle all these problems that our nation could be faced with," said Mounts as he explained the different scenarios CSTs are prepared to respond to, from natural disasters to WMD threats, such as the scenario in Marlinspike.
"The CSTs are sort of like the hidden secret of the National Guard," Mounts said. "We are the first line of defense getting inside the hot zone to determine a solution to the problem and we have all the funding, resources and training we need."
Teams from the Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana National Guard led the event. Other participants included the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, Jackson County Emergency Management, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, and other local, state and federal agencies.