CENTENNIAL, Colo. -- Colorado National Guard’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High Yield Explosive Enhanced Response Force Package will host a collective training event at Buckley Air Force Base, Aurora, and between BAFB and Watkins, Colorado April 5-6, 2019.
A medical element from the West Virginia National Guard CERFP is participating in the exercise.
A CERFP includes six elements: command and control, search and extraction, decontamination, medical element, fatalities search and recovery teams and joint incident site communications capability.
The CONG CERFP is providing support to the WVNG team being externally evaluated during this exercise.
“We are exercising our capacity to assist civilian authorities in the event of a mass casualty event and building proficiency toward our next evaluation in 2021,” CONG CERFP Operations Officer U.S. Army Lt. Adam Wherle said.
The Wyoming Civil Support Team will provide site entry control, and the Utah Homeland Response Force will act as the higher headquarters providing reporting and communication assets. Certifiers from the Army Interagency Training and Education Center will assist in the evaluator role.
30 vehicles will convoy between the locations.
On order of the Governor, a CERFP responds to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents, assisting local, state, tribal, and federal agencies by providing capabilities to perform patient and mass-casualty decontamination, emergency medical services, and casualty search and extraction.
Colorado is one of 17 states with a CERFP.
Such units are federally resourced, trained, equipped, and sustained, but state-controlled.
Members of the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army will observe the training as part of a military exchange through the National Guard State Partnership Program. Jordan and Colorado became partners through the SPP in 2004. The SPP builds long-term relationships between partner nations, improving interoperability, and enhancing military capabilities.