National Guard News - National Level Exercise showcases Guard’s interagency operability

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 Guard members 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 Guard members, 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 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. (Georgia National Guard photo) (Released)
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ARLINGTON (5/17/11) - As of noon EST, about 9,000 National Guard members were activated in support of National Level Exercise 11, the National Guard Bureau’s director of domestic operations and force development said here today.

NLE 11 – the nation’s largest-ever multi-agency exercise involving an actual natural threat – is based on a catastrophic earthquake in the New Madrid Earthquake Zone. The exercise is intended to build relationships while developing communication and interagency plans to properly respond to an incident of this level, Army Maj. Gen. David Harris said.

In the simulated environment of the NLE 11, National Guard members – along with U.S. Northern Command, Federal Emergency Management Agency and active-duty personnel – are working to develop command and control of state and federal assets in the affected regions

National Guard News - National Level Exercise showcases Guard’s interagency operability