Interagency Exercise Hones Rescue Operations

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2011 — The largest fed­er­al inter­a­gency exer­cise for per­son­nel res­cue and recov­ery began Davis-Mon­than Air Force Base, Ariz., Oct. 9 with joint, coali­tion, inter­a­gency and inter­na­tion­al par­tic­i­pants all focused on sav­ing lives.

The annu­al Angel Thun­der exer­cise, spon­sored by the Air Force’s Air Com­bat Com­mand, con­tin­ues through Oct. 21 and is using an earth­quake sce­nario to pre­pare par­tic­i­pants for res­cue and recov­ery mis­sions, offi­cials said. 

Brett Hart­nett, a for­mer Air Force com­bat res­cue heli­copter pilot who found­ed and man­ages the exer­cise, attrib­uted its con­tin­ued suc­cess to net­work­ing, part­ner­ships and the “whole of gov­ern­ment” approach to sav­ing lives. 

“It is like work­ing in Afghanistan with the Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force,” he said, not­ing that the exer­cise cov­ers the gamut of res­cue mis­sions. Par­tic­i­pants are eval­u­at­ed on the per­for­mance and effec­tive­ness of a per­son­nel recov­ery force, he added. 

This year’s exer­cise involves 1,400 peo­ple from U.S. South­ern Com­mand, U.S. Africa Com­mand and the Joint Per­son­nel Recov­ery Agency, offi­cials said. Also tak­ing part are key U.S. agen­cies such as the State Depart­ment, Coast Guard, Cus­toms and Bor­der Pro­tec­tion, Drug Enforce­ment Agency, and U.S. Agency for Inter­na­tion­al Development. 

Aus­tralia, Cana­da, Colom­bia, Den­mark, France, the Nether­lands, Pak­istan, Sin­ga­pore and Swe­den also are tak­ing part, and Chile, Egypt, El Sal­vador, Lebanon, Peru, Uruguay and Qatar are observ­ing the exer­cise this year. 

Hart­nett not­ed the val­ue of close, reg­u­lar exer­cis­es with coun­tries such as Colom­bia, which returned this year for its fourth Angel Thunder. 

“We know they’re good, we know who to con­tact, and we’re used to work­ing with them,” he said. 

Local par­tic­i­pants in the net­work also con­tribute to the exercise’s suc­cess, Hart­nett said. This year, two hos­pi­tals, three sheriff’s offices, a fire depart­ment and three uni­ver­si­ties are participating. 

“We’ve quilt­ed togeth­er facil­i­ties, loca­tions, gov­ern­ments and agen­cies,” he said. “It’s a very low-cost exer­cise because it’s based on net­work­ing, rather than rein­vent­ing the wheel.” 

Hart­nett called Angel Thun­der the “biggest bang for the buck in train­ing dol­lars.” It is the only per­son­nel res­cue exer­cise that has been nom­i­nat­ed for joint cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and accred­i­ta­tion, he added. 

Angel Thun­der grew quick­ly in 2005 with­out a bud­get, but soon “explod­ed” in par­tic­i­pa­tion, Hart­nett said. 

“Every­one wants to get in this exer­cise,” he said. “The Air Force rec­og­nized it, and ACC put the offi­cial [exer­cise] stamp on us.” 

The goal of Angel Thun­der is sim­ple: “The mis­sion comes down to sav­ing lives,” Hart­nett said. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →