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Participants of command post exercises here in Europe are probably quite familiar with the following scene: you pick up the telephone to call a response cell that simulates some agency your unit is interacting with. On the other end, a role player picks up and offers a scripted answer in an unconvincing foreign accent that provides information that is the best-informed guess at what would really happen.
Participants of Guardian Shield 2010 had a slightly different experience when they called the response cell. They got to talk to a role player whose accent was authentic and who gave the answer a real Polish fire chief would give, because the person they were talking to was a real Polish fire chief.
As part of the 7th Civil Support Command’s recent exercise, Guardian Shield 2010, several Polish national agencies provided subject matter experts to the response cell to provide expert advice, added realism and added training value to this exercise.
This is part of a series of exercises aimed at bringing the 7th CSC to full operational capability as a civil support command. This specific exercise scenario involved the 7th CSC’s Incident Management Team deploying in response to a request by the Polish government to assist with a chemical spill in a major metropolitan area.
While the scenario itself is highly unlikely, as the Polish authorities have a rather robust disaster response capability, it did provide an opportunity for the 7th CSC to improve its ability to operate with this key regional partner, said Polish police Lt. Tomasz Milczarek.
“It doesn’t really matter about the details of the scenario. The important part is the chance for our countries to work together in a civil response incident,” said Lieutenant Milczarek through an interpreter. “We were put to work finding real life solutions to these problems in a very short time, and it was challenging, but great learning for all of us.”
The Polish participants included police, fire and military officials, as well as representatives from other Polish governmental agencies.
Although the exercise was aimed at training the 7th CSC, the Polish participants learned some major lessons as well that they will be able to take back to their organizations — specifically the integration of reserve forces, as their military and fire response forces recently transitioned to an all-volunteer force, with roughly 80 percent reserve forces, said Regional Fire Chief Adrzej Mroz.
“Because of the nature of this exercise, it has forced these agencies to work together,” said Chief Mroz through a translator. “We’ll be taking some of these lessons back home with us as well.”
