When natural disasters such as hurricanes or tornados strike anywhere across the country, it takes a coordinated effort between branches of the military, first responders, civilians and other entities to save as many lives as possible, secure the area and help to avert further crises.
To help prepare for those types of situations, the National Guard spent February 19 and 20 at Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center outside Hattiesburg conducting the PATRIOT exercise, a joint interagency program designed to train members of the military on that measure. PATRIOT, which is sponsored by Air National Guard Bureau, featured more than 300 civilians, volunteers and National Guard members from more than 20 states, who conducted various disaster response exercises at the site.
“It’s super important for the Guard to be able to integrate with our civilian and industry partners,” said Lt. Col. Sarah Ashley Nickloes, who serves as exercise director. “For the past two decades, we have been stepping out the door for our Title 10 response (which outlines the role of armed forces) with the active duty, so we haven’t had a chance to prepare for domestic operations.
“The National Guard’s primary purpose is to defend the homeland and take care of the homeland, and so being able to offer these types of exercises allows us to concentrate and focus once more on what we can do stateside.”
In particular, the PATRIOT participants spent their time preparing for a severe hurricane – similar to Hurricane Katrina, which struck the southern United States in 2005 – and all situations that may come along with those events. That includes possible tornadoes, flooding, rioting, search and rescue operations, and HAZMAT situations.
“We’re making sure that we prepare on all levels for what we need what we need to do when we arrive on scene as military, working for the civilians, and working side-by-side with our civilian counterparts,” Nickloes said. “Between the Army and the Air Force, we speak different languages, and then when we integrate with our civilian counterparts, we have different languages also.
“So being able to sit and talk with our civilian counterparts, and our Army counterparts, we’re able to learn their language and learn how to communicate effectively. So when we get on scene, we’re able to not have any of those misconnects, and we can talk one-on-one and make sure to be a synergistic force so we can save lives.”
The Guard was joined by entities such as Backcountry Search & Rescue, an all-hazards search and rescue team that supports and assists those operations in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Also on site were members of Verizon, who conducted training on how to re-establish communications after a natural disaster. That included testing special mobile network assets, which are used to help quickly restore services.
“Think of it as like a cell tower on wheels,” said Mark Paff, director of business continuity and event management for Verizon. “We can wheel in a portable cell tower and restore communications immediately, while our teams can get busy on actually restoring anything that was damaged during the event.
“It’s absolutely critical, when you think about people who are trying to contact loved ones to make sure that they’re okay, or communities trying to figure out assessments for any damage that may have occurred on the storm. And for first responders that are trying to do search and rescue missions, it’s absolutely essential that communications services are restored as quickly as possible.”
The Guard conducts PATRIOT once a year at different sites across the country; next year’s operation will take place in Georgia.
“We’d really like to take the state’s plan and work that, so we can see how our civilians and military work side by side,” Nickloes said.
