“Conducting a large-scale exercise like this really helps us to be prepared so that when we have masses, we’re not overwhelmed and we can provide the care and assistance that’s needed,” Capt. Melissa Moorehouse, commander of the 172nd Hazard Response Company, said of the exercise, which also involved more than 200 civilians playing the role of nuclear disaster survivors. “[The role players] are a great enhancement to training because it allows us to relate to real-world scenarios [and] really helps put it into perspective for us.”

In domestic disaster response, the Air Force – typically through the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve – provides airlift, evacuation, and fire suppression capabilities. The regular Air Force provides similar capabilities for overseas disaster relief missions. Special operations airmen can be dropped into a disaster zone anywhere on Earth within hours to set up and operate emergency airfields.

Overseas exercises provide U.S. and foreign militaries and civilian responders similar opportunities to hone their skills. For example, in February 2016, the U.S. Army Reserve’s 773rd Civil Support Team, members of the Slovenian army, and a team from Spain’s Unidad Militar de Emergencias conducted a weeklong CBRN exercise: Ocean Response. The joint response team trained in disaster scenarios staged at U.S. facilities in Baumholder and Miesau, Germany, before concluding the exercise at the U.S. Rhine Ordnance Barracks.

In January 2016, NORTHCOM’s Army component – Army North (5th Army) – deployed its Defense Coordinating Officer/Element (DCO/E) for the Southeastern United States to North Carolina for a Certification Exercise (CERTEX) in which it trained to assist local, state, and federal civilian authorities responding to a simulated Category Four hurricane that had devastated several areas along North Carolina’s coast.

The exercise closely mimicked real-world events Army North will face in FEMA’s Region IV – North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama – with Army North and more than 50 personnel from nine states focusing on being DOD’s on-site observer and coordinator in a multi-agency, civilian-led emergency operations center. It also was designed to further develop the relationship between FEMA and state emergency preparedness liaison officers (EPLOs) assigned to Region IV’s eight states.

“As natural disasters or man-made disasters become more complex and resources get constrained, we need to come together as a collaborative group effort to provide the support necessary,” noted Col. Jonathan Simmons, Alabama EPLO.

In a simultaneous effort less than a mile from the DCO/E exercise, Army North’s Task Force (TF) 51 took a more hands-on field approach, serving as the forward command post for Joint Forces Land Component Command (JFLCC-Forward). As with the CERTEX, coordination with civilian officials was a critical component of the TF-51 exercise.

“This type of exercise allows us to build solid relationships with local, state, and federal agencies and to better coordinate efforts,” said Maj. David Briten, a TF-51 liaison and future operations planner.

 

U.S. Air Force

In domestic disaster response, the Air Force – typically through the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve – provides airlift, evacuation, and fire suppression capabilities. The regular Air Force provides similar capabilities for overseas disaster relief missions. Special operations airmen can be dropped into a disaster zone anywhere on Earth within hours to set up and operate emergency airfields.

“The USAF could provide a plane with a mixed crew – Air Guard, active duty, Reserve – but fly as a single crew. As soon as they get 12 miles off the U.S. coast, that crew becomes a Title 10 asset, even if they were a Guard asset when they took off. So the Air Force is much more agile as to what duty status their personnel are in, with the Air Guard floating almost seamlessly between being a state and a federal responder,” LaCrosse explained.

Just as DOD works closely with and at the direction of FEMA in most domestic missions, it coordinates overseas disaster response efforts with USAID, which in FY 2015 responded to 49 crises in 45 countries (not all of which involved DOD assistance), a light year compared to the average of 65 disasters in 50 nations.

 

U.S. Coast Guard

The Coast Guard generally is seen by the public as a safety and counter-smuggling agency. But it also is the seventh-largest naval force in the world and called upon by the State Department for the vast majority of training missions involving foreign navies. That has been expanded to include emergency preparedness.

The Coast Guard also is called into both domestic and foreign disaster response efforts – from humanitarian aid to earthquake and hurricane response to maritime oil spills, etc. – as well as search and rescue (SAR), at-sea ship collisions, and rescue operations. Those do not always involve the on-site use of Coast Guard equipment and personnel, but may be limited to technical advice to other countries.