PERRY, Ga. – The Louisiana National Guard Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High-Yield Explosive (CBRNE) Enhanced Response Force Package (CERFP) conducted a training exercise culminating in a National Guard Bureau evaluation Dec. 1–7 in Perry, Georgia.

The CERFP is a joint, self-sustained unit composed of Louisiana Army and Air National Guard service members. The specialized team is trained to deploy rapidly to disaster zones, providing casualty search and extraction, patient decontamination, and emergency medical services.

“This event is absolutely a Super Bowl amongst the CBRNE community,” said Col. Joseph Barnett, commander of the 61st Troop Command, headquartered in Carville, Louisiana. “This facility provided us with a real-world environment unlike anything we had available to us in the state [Louisiana], and its successful completion validates that we’re prepared to respond to a real-world disaster.”

Barnett also acts as the joint incident commander of the CERFP when it is activated and stressed that the Georgia training venue was pivotal to mission success.

The LANG CERFP was the first National Guard disaster response group to train at Guardian Centers of Georgia, a state-of-the-art disaster response training facility that offers challenging, hyper-realistic scenarios to evaluate operational capabilities and mission readiness in responding to catastrophic events.

The exercise involved more than 240 Louisiana National Guard service members.

Air Guardsmen assigned to the 159th Fighter Wing, headquartered in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, contribute critical capabilities including medical personnel, a fatality recovery unit and Joint Incident Site Communication Capability.

“I’m an emergency medicine physician on the civilian side … this is a little different because we’re in a field environment working in tents instead of in a hospital,” said Lt. Col. Drew Shiner, assigned to the 159th Medical Group, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “Our team has another emergency physician, a family medicine physician, and an OBGYN as well so it’s a diverse mix of different specialties that we bring to the table. This is what we train for and this is what we do in the Guard.”

Louisiana Army National Guardsmen assigned to the 61st Troop Command bring Soldiers proficient in chemical detection, obstacle breaching, search and extraction, technical rescue and mass patient decontamination.

This training required an adept ability to adapt and improvise.

“It’s unique because there are nuances related to how you execute command and control,” said Barnett. “We follow FEMA guidelines, FEMA terminology and FEMA training with the intent of being able to embed with civilian authorities who are typically the first on scene for an event, so we need to be able to speak their language.”

The LANG’s CERFP is responsible for deploying within six hours of notification to any location within FEMA Region 6, which includes Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

“The logistics necessary to move the CERFP over 600 miles are extensive,” said Capt. Seth Woodfield, LANG CERFP operations officer. “The precision needed to conduct events like this real-world training is far reaching.

Throughout the week, service members had to assess areas in the aftermath of staged CBRNE crises and coordinate efficient responses to save lives in a real-world situation. Enormous obstacles, low-level radioactive environments, and endless rubble to traverse were just a few of the impediments that had to be navigated and cleared during the exercise.

“Our rescues include high-angle and low-angle ropes rescue, combined spaces, all sorts of rope access to get to any sort of patient/victim for extraction or rescue purposes,” said Spc. Amy Brignac, assigned to the 239th Military Police Company and a member of the CERFP search and extraction ropes team.

Ropes teams are an essential element of the CERFP that enables search and extraction team members to access victims that are in hard-to-reach areas such as collapsed elevator shafts. The scenarios encountered at the training facility presented opportunities for service members to get hands-on training with specialized equipment that they may not typically encounter.

As a result of the training, service members became increasingly proficient and able to execute their CERFP responsibilities in addition to their various military specializations.

“You can’t replace the training we are getting here,” said Sgt. First Class Lewis Sanders, assigned to 1st Detachment, 792nd Chemical Company. “Guardian Centers allowed us to get into buildings, into cement-collapsed structures and steel-collapsed structures. It’s brought an element into our training that otherwise the Soldiers would just not get.”

“It’s incredible. You can see all the detail that they’ve [Guardian Centers] put into it,” said Brignac. “I’ve never been to any sort of training facility like this before. In the past, we’ve used shipping containers stacked up on top of each other, so this is the most realistic setup I’ve ever seen.”

In addition to ensuring readiness to deploy throughout FEMA Region 6 within a matter of hours, continuous training of the personnel assigned to the CERFP is also important because entire units assigned to the mission can change.

“The 927th Engineering Company is preparing to move on from this mission after having it for over 10 years,” said Woodfield. “The 239th Military Police Company is assuming that mission and has spent the last twelve months training to ensure that no gap in readiness exists. Now we’re here a year later, and we have a fully prepared organization.”

Established in November 2010, the LANG CERFP has been called upon for numerous missions, including hurricane responses and major public events. The unit provided command and control support following Hurricane Isaac in 2012 and assisted the 62nd Civil Support Team during Mardi Gras and high-profile events like the NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans.