It is a widely recognized irony that U.S. soldiers

frequently train for situations that the country

hopes they will never face. No scenario reinforces

that point more clearly than the potential need for

federal military support to civil authorities in the af-

termath of a domestic terrorist attack.

That is exactly the horrific scenario that provided

the basis for Vibrant Response 13-2, a U.S. Army

North (Fifth Army) field training exercise designed to

confirm the operational and tactical capabilities of in-

tegrated elements across DoD’s chemical, biological,

radiological and nuclear (CBRN) response enterprise.

34 ARMY � November 2013

Vibrant Response 13-2

‘Preparing for a Day THAT By Scott R. Gourley

Photographs by Scott R. Gourley

That response enterprise includes both Title 32 state/National Guard responders and Title 10 federal mil-itary responders. Title 32 capabilities include 57weapons of mass destruction civil support teams

(WMD-CST) of approximately 20 personnel each, capable ofdetection, identification and CBRN assessment; 17 chemi-cal, biological, radiological, nuclear and high-yield explo-sive enhanced response force packages of approximately200 personnel each, adding search, extraction, decontami-nation and emergency medical capabilities; and 10 home-land response force teams of approximately 500 personneleach, expanding on other capabilities while adding com-mand-and-control and security elements.If and when these capabilities are insufficient for a partic-

ular CBRN event, states can request additional federal as-sistance through the Federal Emergency ManagementAgency (FEMA), which will then look across the federalgovernment, where CBRN response options can include Ti-tle 10 federal military responders. Although scalable to

meet specific needs, the federal military CBRN response isbroadly organized into the 5,200-person Defense Chemical,Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Response Force (DCRF)and two 1,500-person command-and-control CBRN re-sponse elements (C2CRE-A and C2CRE-B).In the event of a domestic crisis or terrorist attack, the

DCRF and C2CREs would be deployed under the commandof U.S. Army North (ARNORTH), the Army component ofU.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM). Joint Task ForceCivil Support (JTF-CS), as the nation’s only standing CBRNjoint task force, would command the DCRF. Based at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., JTF-CS anticipates,

plans and integrates Title 10 CBRN response operations.The task force is assigned to NORTHCOM and is underthe operational control of the commander of ARNORTH.That ARNORTH linkage can also be used to help coordi-nate and sustain units conducting the response mission.The Vibrant Response field exercise reflects ARNORTH’s

important role in training and exercising the DCRF and

November 2013 � ARMY 35

We Hope Never Comes’

Clockwise from top left: During Vibrant Response 13-2, held at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, Ind., in August, soldierstrained on how to deal with a domestic terrorist attack; SGT Rhonda Arnesen-Foss, 51st Chemical, Biological, Radiologicaland Nuclear (CBRN) Company, strings a lighting system to ensure decontamination efforts can run 24/7; the advance partysets up; a soldier prepares medical decontamination transport for nonambulatory patients; buildings show the effects of thehypothetical detonation of two 5-kiloton nuclear devices; a soldier from the 83rd Chemical Battalion helps with the setup.

C2CRE federal response forces. Thefirst of these field training exercisestook place in November 2009, followedby events in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Vibrant Response 13-2 was held this August. It was centered atthe Muscatatuck Urban Train-ing Center (MUTC), Ind. Once

home to the Muscatatuck State Devel-opmental Center, the 1,000-acre sitewas turned over to the Indiana Na-tional Guard in July 2005 and hasgrown into a full-immersion, contem-porary urban training environment.Additional activities were conductedat Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center, Ind.,and other locations across the region.According to Larry Ritter, an operations evaluation ana-

lyst at ARNORTH, this year’s scenario was premised on thehypothetical detonation of two 5-kiloton nuclear devices ina Midwestern city. Subsequent implementation of myriadstate and federal processes was evident in the exercise com-mand headquarters, where state of Ohio representativesworked closely with FEMA’s Region V Incident Manage-ment Assistance Team (IMAT) on a request for federal assis-tance. Deploying with the IMAT was the ARNORTH de-fense coordinating officer, who works closely with FEMAcounterparts to coordinate federal military assets.“The vast majority of the troops at Vibrant Response are

part of the federal response that would follow a process, be-ginning with the state governor requesting federal assis-tance and declaration of a national disaster area by thePresident,” Ritter said. “The NORTHCOM commander hasgathered all the necessary forces and is deploying them for-ward. In the concept, the NORTHCOM commander is al-lowed to deploy forces to federal installations, and then hecan only employ them once formal aid has been requested.So, in this particular scenario, we’re pretty sure that moststates and local governments are not going to have the re-sources necessary to handle that level of destruction. Thenearest thing to it that we have seen in the United Stateswas probably Hurricane Katrina” in 2005. According to Ritter, DCRF elements participating in Vi-

brant Response 13 introduced decontamination, security, ur-ban search and rescue, hazardous material reconnaissance,and logistics support capabilities. Units came from 27 statesand included a dozen brigade headquarters. Participatingunits included elements of the 83rd CBRN Battalion and

subordinate 51st CBRN Company, Fort Stewart, Ga.; the36th Area Support Medical Company, Fort Bragg, N.C.; ele-ments of the 60th Engineer Company, Fort Benning, Ga.;and the 127th Military Police Company, Fort Carson, Colo.Most of the assets went through a formal training profi-

ciency evaluation, which was followed by a training perfor-mance assessment letter from the ARNORTH commandinggeneral to the first general officer in their chain of com-mand, Ritter said. Elaborating on how ARNORTH helpsthe unit technical training processes for the federal militaryresponders, he said, “It’s different operating in the UnitedStates versus operating across the water. Here, legally, youhave to follow OSHA [the Occupational Safety & HealthAdministration]. You have to follow guidelines establishedby the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) on howyou conduct urban search and rescue. FEMA guidelines onurban search and rescue use the NFPA because they’re theexperts, they’re the ones who do it all the time.“Vibrant Response 13 represented the confirmatory exer-

cise for NORTHCOM to say that this force, from the two-star headquarters all the way down to the lowest platoon, isprepared, resourced, trained and ready to assume missionon October 1,” he said.As commander of the 60th Engineer Company urban

search and rescue teams, CPT Alvin Cavalier brought 149soldiers to the MUTC from Fort Benning. As of October 1,the unit was “allocated” to the JTF-CS/DCRF; not underday-to-day control but “on tap” for missions in the DCRF ifcalled upon.“The scope of our mission at Vibrant Response is to con-

duct urban search and rescue,” CPT Cavalier said. “Our sol-diers are here participating with units from across America.This is important not only for the Army but for the citizens ofthe United States because we are coming together collec-tively to conduct a joint training exercise that will—in theevent that this type of attack were to actually occur—allow

36 ARMY � November 2013

Scott R. Gourley, a freelance writer, is a contributing editor toARMY.

CBRN responders dressed in protectivegear move into a potentially contaminatedarea to conduct reconnaissance efforts.

us to come together and conduct operations on the ground tohelp save lives and reduce suffering of American citizens.”During the exercise, unit personnel employed equipment

ranging from specially equipped chain saws and concretebreaching tools to specialized suits and breathing gear.“If we did have a large-scale attack or another incident

like Hurricane Katrina, when we absolutely had to get citi-zens out and to safety, they should know that our unit hasbeen trained and prepared to support such a mission,” CPTCavalier said. “We’re here to save lives and mitigate suffer-ing. In the big picture, we’re here to help Americans.”

While CPT Cavalier’s urban search and rescueteams hurried to off-load their specialized equip-ment packages, SGT Rhonda Arnesen-Foss andother members of the 51st CBRN Company es-

tablished a medical triage and CBRN decontaminationarea. Decontamination capabilities for the DCRF are identi-fied as 240–360 ambulatory patients per hour (120–180 non-ambulatory). Each of the two C2CREs supports 40–60 am-bulatory patients per hour (20–30 nonambulatory).“The ADVON [advanced liaison party] has set up power

and water as well as the blivets and the flooring for theshowers,” SGT Arnesen-Foss said. “We set up the tarpingand the rest of the area so they have the ‘cold zone’ and ‘hotzone.’ We’re setting up the DRASH [Deployable Rapid As-sembly Shelter] tents and high-speed generators that runpower in equal amounts in case you need both running, orif one goes down you have a backup—and of course, we’vestarted the water heaters for the showers.”“This is the largest domestic effort for CBRN response in

the United States,” said LTC Larry Terranova, chief of exer-cises for ARNORTH. “We get our exercise funding fromNORTHCOM and also some FORSCOM [U.S. Army ForcesCommand] funding for training. It takes a year to plan, andit is the staff at Army North, with assistance from FORS-COM and other training commands, that brings these ele-ments together here for a month on the ground. It’s an inte-grated effort that is very important to our country.”Elaborating on the integration theme, he said, “It’s a multi-

phased exercise involving multiple task force elements.Last week, for example, we exercised C2CRE-A andC2CRE-B. C2CRE-A is an active duty task force with subor-dinate units that are USAR [U.S. Army Reserve], NationalGuard and active duty. C2CRE-B is a National Guard com-mand that is made up mostly of USAR units. It’s truly amulticomponent effort.In terms of his message to warfighters, LTC Terranova

said, “First of all, they have to learn another language. Weare here with DoD to support the state and the civilianagencies, so we may speak the warfighting jargon of battle-space and Mission Command, but the effort coming intothe state is dual-tracked: the National Guard Title 32 forces,who provide immediate response and are here before, dur-ing and after the other effort; and the Title 10 effort, whichbrings a large capability and gets here fairly rapidly. In ap-proximately 48–72 hours, we will have our units staging at

the BSI [base support installation] and moving forward intothe affected area.“The Title 10 effort brings in skill sets that cover lifesav-

ing, search and rescue, extraction, security elements, med-ical elements, and aviation assets,” he said. “It comes in aself-sustaining package so it will not be a burden on the af-fected area. Title 10 forces know that they are not the lead.They are here to augment and fall into the state and federaleffort—like FEMA and DHS [Department of Homeland Se-curity]—already in place.”Shifting his message to soldiers participating in Vibrant

Response 13, he added, “This is a horrible day for Americaif it happens for real, but we need to be prepared across thecomponents. The Title 10 effort is very important to our na-tion’s effort to protect the homeland and secure the people.These young soldiers should feel proud of what they’re do-ing, knowing that they are here to serve and possibly savethe lives of loved ones and other American citizens.”“We’re either defending the American people or we’re

helping them,” Ritter said. “In this particular case, we’re‘right of the bang,’ helping, assisting, doing what we can tosupport the local authorities and the state authorities in tak-ing care of their citizens. When we train our personnel, weconstantly remind them that these people are their grand-parents, aunts or uncles, sisters or brothers. We’re here tohelp the American people. That’s why we exist. Our goal isto turn a victim into a patient as quickly as possible.”“The bottom line is that we are preparing for a day that

we hope never comes,” LTC Terranova said. �

November 2013 � ARMY 37

CPT Alvin Cavalier, commander of the 60th Engineer Company,led urban search and rescue teams during the exercise.