Guard tests readiness with Vigilant Guard '08

More Vigilant Guard '08 photos
877th at Vigilant Guard
165th makes historic landing during Vigilant Guard

Sgt. Michael Wright, of the 877th Company, 781st Battalion, right, assesses the physical condition of simulated earthquake victim Spc. Christopher Freeman, from the S.C. Recruiting and Retention offices, who is laying on a mock earthquake rubble pile. (National Guard photo by Senior Master Sgt. David H. Lipp)

 Nearly 500 Georgia Army and Air National Guard members took part in Vigilant Guard’08 in April. The massive exercise in South Carolina brought together thousands of military, law enforcement, and emergency personnel who responded to a mock major earthquake which caused devastating damage and loss of life across the state.

“The National Guard brings trained personnel from around the country who are able to support a community that has suffered a disaster, explained Brig. Gen. Les Eisner, commander of troops for the exercise. “Vigilant Guard allows is to test our capability and develop relationships with the local and state agencies we will be working with.”

The epicenter of the response effort was near Beaufort, S.C., where members of the 781st Troop Command Battalion (CERF-P) took advantage of the realistic scenarios to prepare for domestic operations.

Much of the training took place at a unique location called the "rubble pile" that simulated the remnants of a collapsed reinforced cement building. The “pile,” which was built especially for the exercise from more than 2,000 tons of concrete, steel reinforcement and other debris, gave members of Augusta’s 877th Engineer Co. and other units, the opportunity to do realistic search and recovery operations.

Nearby, at Hilton Head Island Municipal Airport, aircrews of Savannah’s 165th Airlift Wing made history when they landed a C-130 Hercules to evacuate victims. The four-engine, propeller driven cargo plane was the largest ever to land there and as a result, the airport – which features the nation’s shortest commercial runway – is now certified to handle military aircraft of that size.

At Port Royal harbor, Georgia's 4th Civil Support Team joined more than 100 local law enforcement and first responders in a scenario that involved a terrorist organization hijacking a local ferry and using it as a platform for deploying a "dirty bomb."

Unit personnel, supported by local law enforcement personnel, used the scenario to practiced sniffing out the bomb, the boarding the ferry, and overcoming the “terrorists” before they could use “the bomb”.

“The exercise gives us a chance to work with local responders" said Lt. Alan Hammond, deputy commander of the 4th CST. "They learn how to contact us and give us the chance to improve our skills to support our mission.

"It also gives us an opportunity to exercise waterborne operations, something we don't get a lot of practice doing," he added.

Georgia Air Guard medical units provided personnel to the Air Guard’s Expeditionary Medical Support (EMEDS) operations. EMEDS is a modular, scalable, rapid response medical package that can be used in humanitarian relief, wartime contingencies and disaster response operations.

The victims in the mass casualty exercise sustained simulated injuries that ranged from severe anxiety to life-threatening cases requiring airlift evacuation. About two dozen persons were airlifted by National Guard OH-58 Kiowa and UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters, some flown by members of the Georgia Guard’s Company C, 2nd battalion,151st Supply and Service Battalion from Dobbins Air Reserve Base.

Vigilant Guard 08, which was the National Guard Bureau’s 11th such annual exercise. It was designed to test the Guard’s ability to work with local emergency responders, and it set the new “gold standard in disaster training,” said Maj. Gen. Steven D. Saunders, director, joint doctrine, training and force development, at NGB. Saunders’ office oversees the development of Vigilant Guard exercises.

“We expect continuous improvement,” the general said, standing at the Hilton Head airport, moments before the 165th’s historic C-130 landing. “This exercise brings together a great number of units from different states and puts them together with the local first responders.”

“Watching all these people,” Saunders said, peering out over the airport, “all of them wearing a variety of uniforms, working together, not getting in people’s hair, but working cooperatively together – that’s pretty powerful stuff.”

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