ON GUARD: Georgia Guard Visits Safety Village for Terrorism Response Training

By Pfc. Ashley Fontenot

The ’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and high-yield Explosive (CBRNE) Response Force Package, also known as the JTF 781 CERFP, conducted a joint force training exercise with several first response agencies from the Atlanta area at .

“This exercise is set up to simulate a terroristic hostage situation in an area we are familiar with,” said Maj. Ken Hutnick, executive officer of JTF 781 CERFP.

The Cobb County Public Safety Village was built about a year ago to mirror Marietta Square.  With military and civilian organizations working side-by-side, the Village’s large empty parking lot quickly converted into a fully functional emergency response work flow.

“Our goal this morning is to get all of this equipment up and running within an hour,” Hutnick said. “There are a lot of pieces that have to come together, so organization here is important.”

Last month’s exercise brought out more than 300 Army and Air Guardsmen on Feb. 10, including those from the CERFP and Marietta’s 248th Medical Company to train in a true-to-life scenario. Dozens of members from Georgia’s State Defense Force also participated, role-playing as civilian victims of the terrorist attack.

“Once our search and extraction team gets the ‘victims’ out of the hostage situation, each role player has a scenario card that says what is wrong with them, and what symptoms they should exhibit when they’re being assisted by the response teams,” Hutnick said. “They first go through a triage process, where the responders separate them by injury severity. Since this scenario deals with chemical warfare, the victims must be decontaminated before quickly moving into the medical assistance area.”

The CBRNE unit participates in these types of exercises several times a year, each time striving to make their response better and faster.

“We need to be ready; that means equipment that works and soldiers who are trained. The final piece is knowing how to work together when we’re out here with local law enforcement and emergency teams.  Trainings such as this help us accomplish all the above.”