COLUMBUS, Ind. - Col. Alan Cranford, 167th Theater Sustainment Command, forward officer in charge, receives an email at 8 p.m. He immediately takes action moving the forward team of the 167th TSC from exercise status to real world event. All plans are halted; soldiers are put on alert pending additional information.
The 167th TSC will send a quick response team to Seattle, Wash., to support returning U.S. citizens and personnel coming back from Japan after a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated northeast Japan and crippled nuclear power sources. The mission is vague at this time, but the soldiers of the 167th TSC are prepared in their support role.
Plans are immediately developed and executed. Who will leave their current locations and report in Seattle, Wash., the following day is based upon experience and background. Cost is also a consideration, placing the Title 10 (National Guard), or full-time regular Army soldiers at the top of the list, explains Col. Alan Cranford.
With the assistance of Sgt. Maj. Gary Sullivan, TSC forward non-commissioned officer in charge, Col. Cranford selects a team of 14 to move from Camp Atterbury to Seattle. Departure time is 4 a.m.
Before the soldiers rest for the night, equipment and personal gear must be gathered and packed.
The 167th TSC was supporting Vibrant Response, a joint exercise which simulated a national emergency incident in order to test the preparedness of federal emergency response teams.
The 167th TSC Forward had 49 personnel supporting the exercise at Camp Atterbury, Ind., from March 11 to 20. Additional personnel were participating from Fort Monroe, Va., and Joint Base, Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
The 167th TSC forward arrived at Camp Atterbury on March 5 to begin preparations for the receipt of equipment and personnel. “The exercise ends tomorrow, we still have the real world mission of redeploying the Soldiers and Airmen back to their home station” said Col. Cranford.
Supporting two missions simultaneously is a big job. “It stretches us thin to an extent from the standpoint of the short notice, but it’s not something that is a bridge too far, we certainly can do it, no problem” said Col. Cranford.
Col. Cranford and his Soldiers view their assignments as an opportunity. “It gives us an idea of what additional equipment we may need, how we need to set our teams up, things we need to do to make our operation as efficient as possible,” said Cranford.
Recently promoted Sgt. Patrick Sullivan, assigned to operations night shift said, “It’s a great situation, I am filling gaps here.”
“The key is to be efficient with as few people possible,” explains Cranford, “Lean, you don’t want to cut yourself so lean that you can’t do the mission, we are taking that into consideration also.”
Vibrant Response was a field training exercise put on by U.S. Army North and the Indiana National Guard and took place at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center and Muscatatuck Urban Training Complex. The exercise helped to ensure the future safety of our nation by providing the best training in case of a national emergency.
More than 3,500 civilians and military personnel participated in a simulated terrorist attack in order to test the preparedness of various federal, state, and local emergency responders.