As we crest the hill for Vibrant Response 13, it is time to shed a little more light on this whole exercise. Command and Control(C2) elements (C2CRE and DCRF) are the primary training audience for this event. Each “element” has subordinate units assigned to address the needs of the civilian authority requesting assistance. The DoD is subordinate to the local authority, which in many cases will be the State. When state resources are reduced/depleted, they request assistance from the federal government. We usually see this with FEMA assisting during disasters.

National Guard troops are governed under Title 32 of the United States Code which allows them to function under the direction of the Governor to preform basic “maintain order” missions of which disasters are recognized. Federal military forces are governed by Title 10 and are under the direction of the President. Title 32 forces can be federalized into Title 10 forces by order of the President, which is how NG troops are sent to foreign wars. The C2 elements were activated following the events of 9/11 and Katrina. The key guiding principle is that they support the civilian authority. In fact, federal forces are prohibited from carrying weapons on US soil.

The C2 elements bring their assigned resources in aviation, operations, medical and logistics to assist. The exercise is designed by the 5th Army’s training arm – ARNORTH. They are set up in two areas of Indiana to replicate the events I’ve been describing. The Muscatatuck Urban Training Center(MUTC) is located outside of Seymour IN and at Camp Atterbury outside of Edinburg IN. They have venues that include crashed a helicopter and airplane, damaged buildings, subways, rubble piles for victims, ground transportation areas, landing zones and a vacant city that was once the state hospital complex. They use hundreds of people portraying “victims” who go through “make-up” to appear as injured. There is also a news crew that produces twice daily broadcasts using live footage they shoot throughout the day. It’s a real production.

We are running about 15 missions a day now at the two venues, which is significantly less than last week. In addition to overseeing the missions, we also provide current SA/SU (situational awareness/situational understanding) to the group role playing the State agencies and to the ExCon (Exercise Control) group. We are able to provide them with current mission status with our field commanders reports to us in the Area Command.

We have a few more days of events before it ends on Monday. Not a lot will change between now and then which, may make this my last post on the Vibrant Response Exercise. Send me comments if there’s something you want to know about.

Tomorrow, the Exercise Director will call EndEx or End of Exercise for this portion of the mission, known as VR 13 – DCRF 1 – Vibrant Response 13 for Defense Consequence Response Force 1. Basically, the training and evaluation of the JTF-CS (see previous posts). The daily missions continued with water purification, mass casualty decontamination, chemical detection and identification, search and rescue, search and extraction from rubble piles and collapsed buildings, transportation of supplies via ground and air and the creation of a civilian relief center. In total over 250 missions will have been completed in about 7 days. A lot was learned by the training audience has occurred which is what we came here to do. Sometime tomorrow, we will start to shift to VR 13 – C2CRE A&B or Vibrant Response 13 for Command and Control for the CBRN Response Elements A and B (yes, an acronym within an acronym). The mission will continue with a new training audience and a new command staff.

I thought a little insight into military speak would be fun – alphabet soup as I call it. Here it is as it sounds with the acronyms attached: ” We need a R-FF (RFF) sent through Jiff-flick(JFLCC) to NorthCom for the crest(CREST) to report to the fob (FOB) in the Joe ah (JOA). They will be establishing a dee see r see(DCRC) as requested in the may toe(MATO) and for an e-med(EMEDS) unit. They however, must wait for the frag-go(FRAGO) to be cut.

In english, this reads like: We need a request for forces(RFF) through the joint forces land component command(JFLCC) to Northern Command for the contingency real estate support team(CREST) to report to the forward operating base(FOB) in the joint operations area(JOA). They will be establishing a displaced civilians relief center(DCRC) as requested in the military assignment task order(MATO) and for an expeditionary medical support unit(EMEDS). They however must wait for the fragmented order(FRAGO) to be cut.

One of our new guys has been compiling a list of these and so far has encountered over 150 of the ones that didn’t make sense to him. The scary thing is that I knew most of them when he asked me. I hope that after 21 days of this two things don’t happen 1) I start talking like this 2) My writing is effected because everything I write now is a lot of alphabet soup.

TTFN

Tata for now…

The work you do, no matter what it is, can bring glory to God. Some people have made choices that put them in the right place at the right time – answering a calling. God can guide your path by offering you choices that lead to your calling. Some people search their whole lives for a calling, while others know they are in it. Moving into management/leadership positions takes just the right combination of education and experience, planned by God of course. It can be a calling that allows you to glorify God; if you want to see it that way. In a leadership role, we are privileged to guide, develop and shape other leaders. There are times when it’s frustrating and we’d like to “just do our job and be done”. That isn’t what God called you to do. Your life at work and at home will influence what type of leader you are. If you watch a lot of “educational” television, the shows that teach you about places and things that you never knew, you probably find that you are teacher at work; rooted in your interest to learn. Take notice of what you do, read, view and spend time doing and you’ll see that its reflected in your work and your leadership practices.

Ephesians 4:1 “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”

“Live a Godly Life” is great advice and probably one of the hardest things that we, as sinners, can follow completely. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. By being nurturing, forgiving, understanding, slow to anger, patient, honest, trustworthy and caring is how we start. This will help us do our work in God pleasing ways and honoring Him in the process. You have received two callings as a leader, both from God, one to lead others and the other is to do it as a disciple of God. Live your life in a worthy way because the responsibility of what you have received is awesome.

1996 American LaFrance Pumper with fresh paint and a light package.

I’ve have nothing related to my writing or business but this is something that I’m excited to talk about. My work with a local community college has kept me busy for the past few weeks working as we’ve on ordering equipment, hiring instructors and taking delivery of a fire truck for the new fire academy. It has been fun and a lot of work, so I thought that I’d share a photo of our new fire truck. It has been a long time since I purchased a truck, let alone a used one. Just like buying a used car, you never really know what you’ll get. This is a very clean truck and will serve our students well for several years to come.

We have also reviewed a number of applications for both Instructor and technician positions. We’ll have a great cadre of instructors to ensure that the students get a great experience and come out ready to serve their communities.

Tomorrow’s post will be back to the exercise in Indiana, today is a little slow as forces move into the area.

We’ve spent the past couple of days setting up an Area Command Post, getting ready for this large scale exercise. We’ll go through three command changes and have oversight of 335 missions between now and Aug 3rd. All of the planning has been coordinated and this morning the first “news cast” was sent.  The breaking news given to the troops deployed here is that a large explosion has occurred in a mid-western city. Later it was reported that a mushroom cloud could be seen miles away. Tens of thousands are feared dead and more are injured. Here in lies their problem. Not only do they have to deal with the event

Initial National Guard troops are on the ground looking for victims and establishing control zones with four specific missions. The President has declared a disaster allowing the US Army forces to deploy into the area over the next 24-36 hours.

In the real-world, the weather is the story here. I haven’t seen dark brown and dried lawns like this since the late 1980’s. Corn crops are short and several fields have already been plowed under and being replanted. The temps have been in the upper 90’s with humidity in the mid 50’s. The AC in our command and control building was out yesterday afternoon and this morning. I shouldn’t complain but with a room full of people and computers then topped off by no air movement, it got a little uncomfortable. A cold front is coming through this afternoon, with severe weather and cooler temps behind it. They are predicting a great weekend, good for the troops, no difference to me.

Stay tuned…

God has truly blessed us each and every day. As leaders we have been given a wonderful gift; the gift to lead others in their vocation. We have an awesome responsibility to provide our co-workers with direction to meet stated goals, to share our knowledge with them, to learn from them and to help them achieve all that they can. God is working through us so that they will not lack anything as they too, go to work for us. Our good work has put us in a place of influence. We influence business decisions, team direction and the growth of others. When you take a minute to think about it, that can become very overwhelming but isn’t that what we signed up for when we accepted our position? God knew that we were able to meet the challenge because He has been with us from the start, whether we knew it or not.

Deuteronomy 2:7 “The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands… The Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.”

How has the Lord your God blessed you in the all the work of your hands? Maybe He put people in your life to show you the glory of His name. People to teach and mentor you in your vocation to reach this position. Many people will say “it was a stroke of luck that I was assigned to that project, without it I would never had gained enough experience to be considered for the promotion.” We should really be thanking God for that experience; it was His way of ensuring that we didn’t lack anything. Have you thanked God for what He has done for you lately? Our Father would like to hear it from you; this is not the time to think “He knows”. One of the biggest challenges in leadership is found in the old saying “it’s lonely at the top”. We may never hear what a great job we’re doing from those that work with us but God has surely blessed us with this work of our hands, be sure to thank Him for those blessings.