Granite State Times

Masters Of Disasters

By Spc. Devin Bard, 114th PAD

A specialized NH Guard incident response team deployed to Alaska last month to hone its decontamination and medical skills during Arctic Eagle-Patriot 2022, a joint training exercise designed to increase the Guard’s capacity to operate in the Arctic. 

The 21 citizen soldiers and airmen who comprise the Granite State element of the New England Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) Enhanced Force Package or CERFP were among 900 guardsmen from across the country and 200 active duty soldiers, airmen and Marines. They trained alongside local first responders and the Canadian military from Feb. 22 to March 10.

Held in Nome, Anchorage and Kodiak, the biannual exercise posed homeland security and state-level scenarios to facilitate realistic training in austere, extreme cold-weather environments. Alaska has been hosting Arctic Eagle-Patriot since 2012.

“This training event was an amazing experience and I look forward to doing it again,” said Sgt. Timothy York, the NCOIC of the NHNG CERFP element. “It was a really great opportunity to conduct training and meet our fellow counterparts from different states.”

The New England CERFP (pronounced “surf-pea”) consists of teams from New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island National Guards. Its mission is to save lives in the aftermath of natural disasters, large contaminations and nuclear strikes.

Rhode Island provides search and rescue capabilities while New Hampshire brings decontamination and medical expertise. Maine handles command and control, coordinating with first responders on the ground.

“We respond to environmental, chemical, biological events,” said York, adding that worst case they are trained to respond to a nuclear attack.

“If we ever were to end up in an event like that there could be thousands of people who need to get out of the contaminated area and get medical treatment,” he said. “It’s the basis of why we're all here.”

A process known as dry decontamination was a focus of this year's Arctic Eagle-Patriot. It involves using large quantities of water to decontaminate a casualty, which can become a major issue in arctic climates, trainers said. It can cause equipment failure and additional cold-weather injuries.

“National Guard Bureau is trying to see whether or not we can handle dry decontamination, what it entails and what it looks like,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Paul Turner of the Maine Army National Guard. “We're hoping that a few years from now we can actually add dry decontamination to a list of our capabilities.”

The exercise was also an opportunity to share best practices.

“We've been able to incorporate different methods that all of us use and learn from each other,” said Gunnery Sgt. Justin Kulman, the NCOIC of the Marine Corps incident response detachment. “We're always going to be working together at different times and it's good to be familiar with some of their processes.”

Kulman added, “Disaster strikes at any time and the temperature doesn't matter, the location doesn't matter, the time of day doesn't matter.”