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September was one mega month for force protection exercises ending Sept. 28 with the U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern’s Warrior Response 2007 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.
***image1***Exercises and training seminars held this month were the U.S. Army Europe’s Guardian Shield, Sept. 11 to 13 at Heidelberg, U.S. Air Forces in Europe’s and 3rd Air Force’s Flexible Response, Sept. 18 to 20 on Ramstein Air Base, and host nation’s Mutual Aid Exercise Sept. 22 on Ramstein and Army posts in east Kaiserslautern.
Information gathered and tweaked at these exercises will feed the European Command’s Flexible Response 2008 to be held throughout Europe in early December.
“Our exercise was to validate our procedures here at the garrison level so we can provide ground truth information for USAREUR to use when participating in Flexible Response,” said Henry Kaaihue, the garrison’s anti-terrorism and force protection officer.
***image2***Ground truth, explained Mr. Kaaihue, is the factual and emotional things that happen in exercise play.
Warrior Response tested the KMC’s crises response of Army and Air Force emergency personnel and the hospital’s mass casualty teams and quick reaction force.
“I want them (KMC) to feel comfortable that we have a plan in place, and we have experienced people who know exactly what to do,” said Lt. Col. Mechelle Hale, the garrison’s commander.
This annual Army-required exercise generally employs both the assistance of the Air Force, which has the first-responder requirement in the KMC, and the host nation, which assists with this support.
“Rehearsing battle dress bits and pieces helps us to get it right when a real incident occurs,” said Col. Robert Ulses, the U.S. Army Garrison Heidelberg commander at the hot- wash – a summary of events held right after the exercise. Colonel Ulses is the direct-reporting garrison commander for Kaiserslautern.
Scenario driven, Warrior Response consisted of a single improvised explosive device detonating near the hospital’s Emergency Room and later determined to be a “dirty bomb,” a low radiation dispersing device.
***image3***“The scenario for our exercise was really the scenario for Guardian Shield and Flexible Response,” said Mr. Kaaihue. “We at the garrison tweaked it a little to be more accommodating to our local assets.”
Exercise participants were units from the Heidelberg and Kaiserslautern garrisons, 21st Theater Sustainment Command, 435th Civil Engineering Squadron’s KMC Fire and Emergency Services and Medical Group, 569th U.S. Security Forces Police Squadron, and LRMC’s staff and assigned units such as the Navy’s Fleet Hospital Great Lakes.
