Eighty-eight Virginia Army National Guard soldiers helped to defuse a simulated explosive situation during the second day of a Vigilant Guard training exercise at Fort Belvoir, Va., Sept. 5 to 7.
It was all part of a command post exercise designed to test the Virginia Guard's capability to respond to a multipronged terrorist attack on the National Capital Region.
The scenario began with explosions on the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River between Virginia and Maryland and at the Colonial Pipeline in Fairfax, Va.
The small task force from the 29th Infantry Division then learned of an additional blast in Alexandria, Va., resulting in a train derailment and a chemical release.
The third explosion meant additional Virginia Guard resources would have to be directed to Alexandria, complicating the response to the Wilson Bridge and Fairfax incidents.
Such stress on people and resources was exactly what Vigilant Guard controllers and evaluators hoped to create when testing the Virginia Guard's ability to think under pressure and provide support to civil authorities during the unthinkable.
No actual lives were in the balance during Vigilant Guard, but participants said the chilling scenario underscored the large amount of prime terrorist targets in the region and the need to be ready to respond to multiple, concurrent contingencies.
Maj. Gen. Robert Newman, Virginia adjutant general, had emphasized to the task force that there are no second chances in a real-world event.
"None of us can afford to fail the next time the balloon goes up," he said. "For the next [catastrophic] event, we've got to be ready."
The objective of such exercises, he said, is to point out "both our successes and our shortcomings so we can work to make those future successes."
The Exercise Control Cell for Vigilant Guard was located in the Virginia Emergency Operations Center in Richmond. Joint Task Force Nova replicated lower echelon units.
© 2007 National Guard Association of the United States Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Source: National Guard
