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Active duty, Guard and Reserves training together for emergency management

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. David Lipp
  • 119th Wing
FARGO, N.D. --  Intelligence agencies determine that a group that has been making threats against the United States is working in a clandestine lab. Law enforcement moves in to secure the lab, but the people who have been coming and going from the lab are lying strewn about on the ground around the building. An urgent call is immediately placed to the emergency management response team.

This is a scenario, which is being played out at the North Dakota Air National Guard Regional Training Site, Fargo, N.D., during the first-ever emergency management training that is unique to the civil engineer 3E9X1 emergency management career field.

The course is offered as a total force hazardous material (HAZMAT) operations and core competency deployment for training.

U.S. Military members from various branches and locations are coming together to learn and train using the same standards in emergency management.

The regional training site in Fargo is one of only two locations in the United States offering 3E9X1 training for the emergency management personnel in both the Air National Guard and the U.S. Air Force, and it is one of four regional training locations set up to offer Civil Engineer training for the Air National Guard in the United States.

"While all of the regional training sites are located at Air National Guard facilities, the sites are being used to train the total force members of active duty, Guard and Reserve emergency management responders from the different branches of the service in exactly the same manner," said Chief Master Sgt. Mike Connors, the U. S. Air Force emergency management career field manager. "The training that is being conducted at the North Dakota ANG regional training site is the perfect venue for emergency management responders to practice techniques and procedures."

The instructors for the course also are a total force group of people coming from active duty and National Guard U.S. Army and Air Force organizations in North Dakota and various other states

"The North Dakota Air National Guard Regional Training Site is literally setting the standard in the Emergency Management career field with the courses that we are teaching here," said Senior Master Sgt. Thomas 'T.K.' Stoudt, National Guard Bureau A7 command emergency manager, during a recent stay in Fargo as a course instructor.

"This first-ever total force training in Fargo is very effective because the site is uniquely equipped to host all types of emergency management training, and we have very professional and knowledgeable instructors from around the country teaching in both the classroom and in the field," said Senior Master Sgt. Michelle Reitan, 119th Civil Engineer Squadron emergency management superintendent.

Among the facilities the emergency management and Civil Engineering personnel training in Fargo can expect to utilize are: several classrooms, mock clandestine weapons lab, equipped emergency operations center, a mock aircraft burn pit and fire tower training structure, and an aircraft runway used for rapid runway repairs, along with all of the sleeping and eating facilities that would be expected in a self-contained training site.

"The goal for our regional training site in Fargo is to be able to provide training for all Civil Engineer U.S. Air Force specialties on equipment that personnel will encounter in the area of responsibility when deployed," said Senior Master Sgt. Scott Terry, who is the North Dakota ANG Regional Training Site manager.