Members of the Wisconsin National Guard's 54th Civil Support Team assess the situation during a hazardous material spill scenario on Saturday (May 14) in Jefferson County. The scenario was the opening event of Vigilant Guard 2011, a large-scale disaster response exercise designed to test National Guard capabilities developed since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and also since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Vigilant Guard shows how local, state and federal agencies would collaborate in response to a real emergency. Wisconsin National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Andy Poquette
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Kentucky Guard member Tech. Sgt. Phil Seif with the 123rd Contingency Response Element installs a speaker system on top of the Hard sided Expandable Light Air Mobile Shelter in Springfield, Mo on May 16, 2011 during the National Level Exercise. The NLE is comprised of the Department of Defense forces and Human Services such as the Mobile Aeromedical Staging Facility and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The NLE itself is a scenario of a 6.0 or higher earthquake on the New Madrid fault line. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Maxwell Rechel)
Tags: Kentucky Air National Guard 123rd Airlift Wing National Level Exercise 2011 Springfield MO USA
Kentucky Guardsman Master Sgt. Kevin Seifert, 123rd Airlift Wing Special Tactic Squadron, packs up his communication backpack while waiting for the UH-60 Black Hawk for the National Level Exercise at Madisonville, Ky., May 16. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Michael Oliver, Kentucky National Guard Public Affairs)
MERIDIAN, Miss., May 16, 2011 – While units of the Mississippi National Guard are dealing with floods threatening the western part of the state, more than 100 Georgia Army and Air Guardsmen have set up shop here at the Meridian-Lauderdale County Public Safety Training Center. They will spend the next five days participating in Operation Vigilant Guard 2011, along with some Soldiers and Airmen from the “cotton state” and Florida, and observers from West Virginia and Texas.
It is expected that more than 500 Guardsmen, first responders and civilian role players will have converged on the center by the time the training ends.
Here Georgia Army Guard Command Sgt. Maj. Mark Stacey (standing center in blue vest), noncommissioned officer-in-charge of safety for Kennesaw’s Joint Task Force 781 and CBRNE Enhanced Response Force Package (CERFP) questions Travis Davis (right), operations branch chief and lead exercise planner from the Joint Interagency Training and Education Center in West Virginia, about possible hazards surrounding a simulated hotel that has collapsed because of an earth quake.
“My job is to get as much information about what’s going on at the incident site and determine what hazards are out there that could put our folks in as much danger," Stacey said. “It’s to no one's advantage for us to become victims ourselves, and thereby lessen the survivability of the folks we come to help.”
The National Guard Bureau in Washington, in conjunction with NORAD and U.S. Northern Command sponsors Vigilant Guard. This exercise in interagency cooperation, provides an opportunity for State National Guard headquarters, State joint task forces like the 781st and its elements to improve command and control and operational relationships with local, state and federal emergency responders. Operation Vigilant Guard 2011 is multi-state exercise linked to the National Level Exercise Tier 11.
MERIDIAN, Miss., May 16, 2011 – While most of the Mississippi National Guard is dealing with floods threatening the western part of the state, more than 100 Georgia Army and Air Guardsmen have set up shop here at the Meridian-Lauderdale County Public Safety Training Center. They will spend the next five days participating in Operation Vigilant Guard 2011, along with other Soldiers and Airmen from the “cotton state” and Florida, and observers from West Virginia and Texas.
It is expected that more than 500 Guardsmen, first responders and civilian role players will have converged on the center by the time the training ends.
Here a group of Soldiers from Kennesaw’s Joint Task Force (JTF) 781 and CBRNE Enhanced Response Force Package (CERFP) gather around Maj. Michael Collins (center), the JTF commander, and work out logistics and other possible issues before the 781st occupies the ground at a “disaster site” out on the Meridian-Lauderdale County Public Safety Training Center.
Vigilant Guard is sponsored by the National Guard Bureau in conjunction with NORAD and U.S. Northern Command. It provides an opportunity for State National Guard headquarters, State joint task forces like Georgia’s JTF and its elements to improve command and control, and operational relationships with local, state and federal emergency responders. Operation Vigilant Guard 2011 is multi-state exercise linked to the National Level Exercise Tier 11.