Ohio National Guard tests innovative emergency response force

By Army 2nd Lt. Kimberly D. Snow
Ohio National Guard

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Ohio National Guardmembers from the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and high-yield Explosive (CBRNE) Enhanced Response Force Package (CERFP) extract a "victim" during a disaster response exercise at the Owens Community College campus in Perrysburg Township near Toledo August 14. (Ohio National Guard photo by 2LT Kimberly Snow)
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WALBRIDGE, Ohio - The rescue worker slowly circled the rubble pile, his expression intent, as he and the others searched for signs of life. He ignored the sweat stinging his eyes as it trickled down beneath a bright yellow hard hat and stopped suddenly, raising a hand with palm facing out -- a signal for the others to freeze -- as he cocked an ear toward the pile.

“We got someone over here!” he shouted as the others raced over.

The moaning—a woman’s—grew louder.

“Ma’am, can you hear me?” called one of the others. “I’m a medic with the Air Force.”

“I’m having a baby!” she responded.

“How bad is the pain?” he asked.

“It’s real bad,” she replied.

“Don’t push!” he said.

“I have to!” she cried.

Several rescuers quickly and methodically began clambering up the rubble pile, drawn toward the source of the moaning as another reported the situation on a hand-held radio.

“We have a priority on extraction here,” he said into the radio. “There’s a woman in labor.”

As the woman continued to cry for help, the rescuers -- all Soldiers and Airmen assigned to the Ohio National Guard’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and high-yield Explosive (CBRNE) Enhanced Response Force Package, or CERFPP -- began formulating a plan to get the woman down from the pile to the safety of a medical aid station.

The woman was one of many “victims” trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building resulting from a 7.5 magnitude earthquake near Toledo, Ohio—an exercise scenario designed to test the capability of the innovative standing joint task force concept being tested and developed within the Ohio National Guard.

The 73rd Troop Command, also known as Joint Task Force 73, is the unit responsible for providing command and control for all state military assets deployed in support of civil authorities during a significant emergency in Ohio, and is the model for this new concept.

“Maj. Gen. (Gregory L.) Wayt, Ohio’s adjutant general, had the vision of having a headquarters in Ohio that could command and control the National Guard response units during a natural disaster or weapons of mass destruction event,” said Brig. Gen. Jack Lee, the 73rd commander. “That headquarters would train with the civilian first responders and be able to talk their language at a disaster scene and control the military response that comes in to aid those civilian first responders.”

That vision was recently realized through a fully operational capable (FOC) exercise conducted over several locations in Northwest Ohio—Camp Perry Training Site near Port Clinton and the Walbridge Armory and Owens Community College Center for Emergency Preparedness in Wood County. With the vast array of resources within its ranks, including the CERFP, the 52nd Civil Support Team and the state’s Quick Reaction Force, the 73rd was an obvious choice for such a unit.

“This exercise ensures the Ohio National Guard is prepared to deploy ready units to accomplish federal, state and community missions and, in conjunction with other local, state, and federal agencies, facilitate a seamless, effective response to any incident,” Wayt said.

Exercise planning began in April when the Joint Force Headquarters-Ohio and 73rd Troop Command staffs jointly developed the concept and scenario. The participating units also provided input to maximize training value, said Lt. Col. Walter M. Duzzny, Joint Force Headquarters-Ohio deputy operations officer for domestic operations. He is also the officer in charge of the exercise’s white cell, a team of about 25 people who controlled and monitored the exercise.

“We drive the exercise through inject play—events that are given to the joint task force to provide them with scenarios that they’re going to react to,” Duzzny said. “The injects are unknown to them so it increases training value. They don't want to know what’s going to happen. It’s in their best interests not to know; it adds realism to the training.”

The white cell kicked off the exercise Aug. 7 by alerting unit leaders and key personnel of a small earthquake in the Toledo area. The tremor started a dialog between the Ohio National Guard Joint Emergency Operations Center and the Ohio Emergency Management Agency, so when the earthquake was followed the next day by the catastrophic 7.5 magnitude earthquake, the units were already poised to respond when they received the governor’s order.

Although only the governor can order the Ohio National Guard to state active duty, when an emergency arises, Ohio’s civil and military agencies immediately begin talking to one another in anticipation of the request.

And in this FOC exercise, as in the majority of the units’ training and evaluation exercises, the troops are working hand-in-hand with their civilian counterparts, including local and state emergency management, fire and law enforcement personnel. These interagency exercises enable all involved to understand the other’s resources and capabilities better, and allow for more precise planning and incident management.

“The time to exchange business cards is not in the middle of an incident,” said Brig. Gen. Matthew L. Kambic, Ohio’s assistant adjutant general for Army.

That lesson was learned and the seed for a standing joint task force was planted during the National Guard response to Hurricane Katrina in September 2005 particularly when Ohio’s hastily-assembled Joint Task Force Buckeye coordinated several states’ National Guard efforts in some of the worst-hit counties on the Gulf Coast.

“This headquarters went to Katrina and there was nothing there,” Kambic said. “We built an air bridge to bring in supplies and flew everything out of Mansfield. We did that for the people of Mississippi and Louisiana. I don’t look forward to the day we have to do something like that for the people of Ohio, but when the time comes, we’ll be ready.”

In months following the hurricane, with after action reviews conducted and problem areas identified, Wayt began looking at Ohio’s organizational structure and capabilities, and formulating a plan.

A standing joint task force from the Ohio National Guard could move in and set up a command post anywhere in the country to coordinate civil-military efforts in the event of a catastrophic event, either natural or man-made.

With Ohio’s homeland defense and response units—the 52nd CST, CERFP and QRF—situated under one command, the components were in place to make the vision a reality. He tasked the 73rd and imposed a challenging deadline for operational readiness.

“We accomplished this in about a year, which is a very short amount of time,” said Lt. Col. Paul McCallister, administrative officer for the 73rd. “With transformation, most units got about two to three years. We got a year.”

In that year, the headquarters element has undergone initial operational capability testing and its subordinate units have conducted and completed a variety of operational readiness training and testing exercises. With each event, the Soldiers and Airmen assigned to the units have gained in both proficiency and confidence for this critical homeland defense mission, said Lt. Col. Scott Smith, commander of the Ohio CERFP. It is also a mission the troops are passionate about.

“We live in Ohio. We have families in Ohio,” Smith said. “It’s exciting for these Soldiers to be able to help protect our families, our employers and our neighbors. So this is a mission that touches home for everybody.”

The units that fall under the Joint Task Force 73 umbrella are equipped with state-of-the-art chemical detection and decontamination, search and extraction, and communication systems, which lends to troop confidence. And the interagency training facilitates the sharing of tactics and techniques to identify and troubleshoot problem areas before a real-world situation arises. And that training has paid off, Smith said.

“We are ready. We are really ready. We are 100 percent ready,” Smith said. “There’s no doubt about it. When called, we will be ready and we will deploy on time and we will accomplish our mission and we will save lives.”