Preparing for America’s Worst Day: Army Exercise Tests the Force

Above: U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers, with the 414th Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Company, based in Orangeburg, S.C., working together with the 409th Area Support Medical Company, based in Madison, Wisconsin, treat patients in a Mass Casualty Decontamination line during the Army Reserve’s Guardian Response 18 exercise, April 11, 2018. More than 4,500 Soldiers from across the country participated in GR18, a multi-component training exercise to validate U.S. Army units’ ability to support the Defense Support of Civil Authorities in the event of a CBRN catastrophe. The training audience brought a range of life-saving capabilities such as medical response, decontamination, technical rescue, patient evacuation, communications and logistics support to move people, equipment and supplies by land and air. (Photo Credit: Master Sgt. Anthony L Taylor)

By Master Sgt. Anthony L Taylor, U.S. Army

MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, Ind. — Fields of debris, demolished vehicles and bodies of mannequins and live role-players laid across an entire town center; words on bed sheets, asking for assistance, hung over the roofs of buildings; and street poles laid fallen, while buildings were covered in plumes of smoke, and homes were submerged in a body of water.

The scene was not the set of Hollywood’s next apocalyptic blockbuster film, but it was what U.S. Army Reserve, Army National Guard and active component Soldiers drove into at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center for the U.S. Army Reserve’s Guardian Response 18 exercise, April 2 – 28, 2018.

“This is a Defense Support to Civil Authorities exercise and it’s to validate and ensure the readiness of our response force for a catastrophic event,” said U.S. Army Reserve Col. Chris M. Briand, Chief of Staff, 78th Training Division and chief of operations for Guardian Response 18. “It is a (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear)-response enterprise which is comprised of three different elements across the active duty, the U.S. Army Reserve and the National Guard.”

More than 4,500 service members from 80 units across the nation participated in the U.S. Army Forces Command-directed evaluation/capstone training event. In addition to all Army components participating in the exercise, elements from the U.S. Air Force as well as federal, state, and local agencies were involved.

“It really is about readiness in our forces and having the proper capability to respond to a catastrophic event anywhere in the homeland,” said Briand. “And also to be able to develop those partnerships with the local communities and interagency (partners), and to be able to come and save lives, prevent human suffering and mitigate extensive property damage, which are the three tenants of the (DSCA).”

The U.S. Army Reserve’s 84th Training Command and 78th Training Division planned, and coordinated as the execution control headquarters for Guardian Response 18.