Joint exercise instills teamwork in various agencies

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Cortney Paxton
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  This past Monday, the Montana Air National Guard was a little busier than normal as members from multiple agencies gathered on Gore Hill in Great Falls, Mont., to participate in a joint training exercise.

Despite wind gusts up to 64 mph, members from Malmstrom Air Force Base's Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Emergency Response Force, or CERF, worked alongside members of the MTANG's 120th Fighter Wing, the North-Central Montana Regional Hazardous Materials Team and the Montana Army National Guard's 83rd Civil Support Team to conduct and complete a chemical and biological scenario exercise Jan. 13.

"The CERF team is an integrated team combining the skill sets of Malmstrom's emergency management and bioenvironmental flights," said Royce Shipley, 341st Civil Engineer Squadron senior emergency manager, and exercise facilitator. "The Malmstrom CERF was the first such entity in the Air Force. We have been on continuous standby and available for CBRN detection, quantification and health risk assessments since November of 2001."

The exercise scenario, which presented a simulated scientifically correct chemical and biological laboratory capable of producing Ricin and a sulfur-mustard agent, was a unique way to bring each of these agencies together and allow them the ability to practice interagency communication and teamwork.

"We always want to be on a first-name basis with the people we could be called to work with during an incident response," Shipley said. "Additionally, we want to ensure interoperability and commonality of procedures both for incident management and processes. The final thing that these joint events do for the participants is to demonstrate confidence in our partners. CBRN response always presents life safety issues and you want to be confident in the abilities of all of your partners when it comes time to respond."

Each agency involved in the event played a different role in the exercise. According to Shipley, the MTANG members provided initial rescue and overall incident command, the North-Central Montana Regional HAZMAT Team provided decontamination capabilities and an entry technician, Malmstrom's CERF provided initial site characterization and confirmation of hazards, and the 83rd CST provided final site characterization and evidence collection.

"All of the various players in this exercise have one common goal - to accomplish the objectives," said Lt. Col. Donald Erpenbach, 83rd CST commander. "At times, coordination and communication may be challenging due to various unit procedures; however, ultimately, everyone comes together to tackle the problem. Making that face-to-face coordination and discussing tactics and procedures among the various responding agencies makes any exercise a success."


Along with allowing interaction between the different organizations, the exercise provided a unique and significant training opportunity for young Airmen in the CERF and emergency response and bioenvironmental career fields, as well as the off-base organizations.

"[Joint exercises aren't conducted] often enough if you ask any of our Airmen," Shipley said. "They always want more of these training opportunities because they want to excel in their mission. From a management perspective, we provide as many opportunities as we can afford. We also have to balance the desire to train more with our partners' ability to support the training. For instance, Great Falls Fire Rescue recalled off-duty personnel to participate in the training and paid overtime while the normal on-duty shift personnel provided fire protection for the city."

Although joint exercises aren't conducted very often, the Airmen who participate take them seriously and use every opportunity they get as a way to learn as much as possible.

"Being a part of any exercise on base is important to me and being able to do one off base at an unfamiliar location and with other organizations made it more challenging and twice as important," said Airman 1st Class Joel Rogel, 341st Medical Operations Squadron bioenvironmental engineer technician, and exercise participant. "Overall, it was very fun and helpful; I learned that we only get better with each exercise."

The exercise was a significant learning opportunity for Malmstrom's CERF Team as they have recently focused most of their attention on radiological responses. This exercise scenario was a good way for the CERF team to practice their chemical and biological response methods as well.

"As a team, we felt we were a little rusty assessing chemical and biological hazards," Shipley said. "We attributed the 'rustiness' to our nearly year-long focus on radiological response in the preparation and execution of the [nuclear weapon accident/incident response] national-level exercise that Malmstrom hosted last May. Conversely, a former CST member and exercise evaluator told us that our site characterization procedures and execution were as sound as any he had seen in his career."

Everyone involved in the exercise was allowed the opportunity to develop working relationships with members of other response agencies. Training objectives were met and areas of improvement were established making the joint exercise a significant success for all involved.

"[I'd like to say] thanks to wing leadership for allowing us to participate in this joint full-scale exercise," Shipley added.