Members of the Kentucky Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High Yield Explosive Enhanced Response Force Package decontamination element transport a mock victim for medical assessment during training at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Butlerville, Ind., March 22, 2013. (Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Brad Staggs, Atterbury-Muscatatuck Public Affairs)

MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, Ind. (4/1/13) – For today’s Soldiers and Airmen, the more realistic their training, the better prepared in the event of an actual situation they’ll be.

For the Kentucky National Guard’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High Yield Explosive Enhanced Response Force Package, or CERFP, the training center here provides a realistic urban scenario where CERFP team members can hone their existing skills and then teach them to new volunteers.

“We’re training a lot of new folks,” said Lt. Col. Lance Grebe, commander of the CERFP. “We’re working on the crawl, walk, run phases. Yesterday was slow, today is a walk phase, and tomorrow should be full run.”

In 2004, the National Guard created 12 CERFP teams. The purpose of those teams is to conduct life-saving actions in a contaminated environment. Today, those CERFP teams have grown to 17 across the United States.

Each team consists of up to 180 Soldiers and Airmen working together in five elements. Each team has a command and control section; a decontamination element; a medical element; a casualty search and extraction element; and a fatalities search and recovery element.

Search and recovery is handled primarily by the Army National Guard, while most medical duties fall to the Air National Guard. For the Kentucky CERFP, that includes the 123rd Airlift Wing, 301st Chemical Company, 299th Chemical Co., and the 103rd Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment.

The CERFP is a quick reaction force, expected to begin rescue operations very soon after receiving the call, Grebe said.

“Our recall time is six hours,” he said. “Once we shake the hand of the incident commander, the clock starts and we have two hours” to be set up and working.

Members of the Kentucky CERFP breaching and breaking team learn how to use a jackhammer safely to get through concrete in order to rescue a victim following a disaster during training at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Butlerville, Ind., March 22, 2013. (Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Brad Staggs, Atterbury-Muscatatuck Public Affairs)

The Kentucky CERFP was validated during an exercise at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in May 2012 when they shattered the previous set-up time record. The team received their validation, and left confident that their training methods would be used by other CERFP teams.

First Lt. Charles Brannon has only recently begun serving as officer-in-charge of search and extraction.

“We’re just learning the process for setting up and extracting people from a hot zone,” Brannon said. “That could be anything from a nuclear disaster to a natural disaster that we are responding to.”

The environment at Muscatatuck creates the perfect place for CERFP to train because of the rubble piles and training venues that simulate buildings and infrastructure following a disaster.

During training, a reconnaissance team may be sent out to observe the site and find victims. Following reconnaissance operations, follow-on teams will begin rescue operations. Breaching and breaking teams, for instance, provide access to trapped victims. Shoring teams ensure walls that are in danger of falling don’t tumble down on victims or rescuers. A ropes team might be called on to rappel into areas to retrieve victims. And lift-and-haul teams are available to move large objects away from victims.

All teams must work in synch to ensure victims are rescued and sent to the waiting medical teams in the “warm” and “cold” zones, which are sometimes miles away from the “hot” zone. Long tents are set up and put together to create a conveyer belt system that takes the victim through several necessary steps.

Decontamination is handled first in the warm zone. Once personnel are assured that the victim has no chemical or radioactive signature, proper medical care can be given in the cold zone.

“I’m confident that if they called me today, I would have no problem taking this unit out to help people,” Grebe concluded. “Handling an emergency is all we train for. We’ll be there if our neighbors need us.”

Soldiers with the Kentucky National Guard Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear high – yield Explosives team(CBRNE) transport a mock casualty as part of their CBRNE Enhanced Response Force Package (CERFP) training at Muscatatuck Urban Training Facility, North Vernon, Ind. Kentucky Guardsmen were rated the best in the nation based upon the training exercise.(Kentucky National Guard photo by Pfc. Lerone Simmons, 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment/Released).

MUSCATATUCK URBAN TRAINING CENTER, Butlerville, Ind. - Kentucky National Guardsmen assigned to Kentucky’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High Yield Explosive (CBRNE) Enhanced Response Force Package (CERFP) can call themselves the nation’s best after an evaluation May 24 at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Butlerville, Ind.

“This is our culmination event and we wanted to be the best CERFP in the country,” said Lt. Col. Joseph H. Gardner, commander of the Richmond-based 103rd Chemical Battalion.

A joint-effort between Airmen from the 123rd Airlift Wing, Louisville, Ky., and Army Guardsmen from the 301st Chemical Company, Morehead Ky., 299th Chemical Company, Maysville, Ky., and 103rd Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, Richmond, Ky., the CERFP is a high-speed team that must be ready to deploy within six hours of a CBRNE attack, with a mission to locate and extract victims, perform mass patient or casualty decontamination and treat and stabilize patients for evacuation.

The team was validated on its ability to perform those tasks by observer controller trainers from the Joint InterAgency Training and Education Center.

“When real-world events happen, we want them to safely and efficiently get people out,” said Sgt. 1^st Class Jared Lane, Observer Controller Trainer, JITEC.

In the event of an attack on the Commonwealth – or one of the eight Southeastern states Kentucky would respond to – CERFP Soldiers and Airmen must prioritize and quickly react.

“We want them to have the skills necessary to correctly assess the situation, then safely rescue and transport all casualties,” said Staff Sgt. Matthew Park, Observer Controller Trainer, JITEC.

According to Maj. Joseph Whitt, deputy commander of the CERFP, the team received a “T” rating, for trained in 16 collective tasks required to validate a CERFP mission.

“The raters said ‘we shattered all the CERFP records,’” he said.

“We had multiple best practices that the OCTs said would be taught to all CERFPs nationwide,” he said. “We beat all the records for the site set up, decontamination throughput, search operations and medical set-ups and treatment throughput.

“We are the best CERFP in the national CBRNE enterprise,” he said.

The training and validation of Kentucky’s CERFP proves that Kentucky’s Citizen Soldiers and Airmen stand always ready to support the Commonwealth.

For Spc. Jason Woodruff, litter bearer, 299^th Chemical Co., said the CERFP team opened the door for joint-training with his Air Guard counterparts, something he wasn’t able to do before CERFP.

“The more training exercises like this, the better we can react,” he said.

Maj. Pirom Srinual, Joint Collective Training branch, National Guard Bureau, Maj. Paul A. Best, J39-Combatting Weapons Of Mass Destruction, NGB and Mark Honeycutt, NGB, observe Kentucky National Guardsmen transport a casualty during a training exercise May 23 at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, Butlerville, Ind. The Guardsmen are assigned to the Kentucky Chemical Radiological Nuclear High-Yield Explosives Enhanced Response Force Package which validated its mission May 24 at MUTC. (Kentucky National Guard Photo by Pfc. Lerone Simmons, 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment/Released)

Kentucky’s top senior enlisted advisors said they are proud of the joint-efforts and the hard work the CERFP put into its validation. Command Sgt. Maj. David P. Munden, senior enlisted advisor Joint Forces Headquarters, said the certification is a big deal, and State Command Sgt. Maj. Gregory D. Armstrong agreed.

“This is one of Kentucky’s greatest assets that we will greatly benefit from in the years to come,” said Armstrong.

Story by Spc. Brandy Mort, 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, Kentucky National Guard

Guardsmen assigned to the Kentucky Chemical Radiological Nuclear High-Yield Explosives Enhanced Response Force Package stabilize a mock casualty during training May 23 at Muscatatack Urban Training Center, Butlerville, Ind. (U.S. Army Photo by Pfc. Lerone Simmons, 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, Kentucky Army National Guard).

Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, Butlerville, Ind. – The Kentucky National Guard’s Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear high-yield Explosives Enhanced Response Force Package is a mouthful, even for its members. But whether they wear Army ACUs or Air Force ABUs, the Guardsmen assigned to the CERFP are “one team, one fight,” according to 1st Lt. Amy Holmes.

To view all the photos from the story, please click HERE.

“During our training, we have the opportunity to get to know our whole team,” said Holmes, an Air Guard nurse assigned to the 123rd Airlift Wing, and CERFP member. “Our practice has helped us to become a cohesive unit in case a CBRNE incident ever occurred.”

After more than a year training to react to a CBRNE attack or incident, the CERFP spent May 21-25 at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, Butlerville, Ind., validating with observer controller teams from the Joint Interagency Training and Education Center based in West Virginia.

Some of Kentucky’s senior enlisted members watched as the CBRNE team completed the walk phase of their CERFP evaluation.

Staff Sgt. Matthew Park, Observer Control Trainer with the Joint InterAgency Training & Education Center gives instructions on how to properly transport a casualty to Kentucky National Guardsmen assigned to the Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear High-Yield Explosives Enhanced Response Force Package training May 23 at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, Butlerville, Ind. (U.S. Army Photo by: Pfc. Lerone Simmons, 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, Kentucky Army National Guard).

“The CERFP team displayed professionalism and teamwork as they worked side by side to complete the overall mission,” said Command Sgt. Maj. David P. Munden, Senior Enlisted Advisor at Joint Force Headquarters. “It is good to see Kentucky’s National Guard working together.”

The Air Force and Army Guardsmen worked together from the very beginning of their CERFP training. For a lot of Soldiers and Airmen alike, this was their first time working together.

“Before this training, I had never worked with the Air Force component before,” said Pfc. Crystal Belcher, CBRNE specialist with the 103rd Chemical Battalion.

The CERFP is broken into three teams. The Army Guard 299th Chemical Company provides decontamination, while the Army Guard’s 301st Chemical Company provides search and extraction. Members of the Air Guard’s 123rd Airlift Wing and some of the Army Guard members both provide medical assistance.

“It is a lot of fun to work with my Army counterparts,” said Airman 1st Class Samantha Crump, a dental tech with the 123rd Airlift Wing, “Both services train in different ways, so when we come together, it is a good time to learn from each other and make our selves better as a team.”

Kentucky Air National Guard CERFP medical team members assemble tents at the Wendell H. Ford Regional Training Center in Greenville, Ky., during a disaster-response exercise Nov. 28, 2011. CERFP — short for Chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive Enhanced Response Force Package — provides immediate response capability to the governor of a state affected by an attack, searching an incident site, rescuing and decontaminating casualties, and performing medical treatment to stabilize them for transport to a medical facility. (Courtesy photo)

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GREENVILLE, Ky. — More than 40 members of a Kentucky Air National Guard disaster-response team deployed to the Wendell H. Ford Regional Training Center here recently, joining forces with Kentucky Army Guard Soldiers to participate in their first field-training exercise.

The Guardsmen collectively formed a Chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive Enhanced Response Force Package, or CERFP for short, said 2nd Lt. Jessica Ellis, medical operations officer. A CERFP is comprised of medical personnel, a search-and-recovery team, a decontamination team and a command-and-control element. Their mission is to provide immediate response capability to the governor of a state affected by an attack, searching an incident site, rescuing and decontaminating casualties, and performing medical treatment to stabilize them for transport to a medical facility.

The exercise, which took place Nov. 28 to Dec. 4, allowed personnel to become more familiar with the equipment they will use in a real-world disaster-response situation, Ellis said. Various exercise scenarios also gave the Air Guard troops an opportunity to perform their duties in a structured learning environment while working with the decontamination team, which is comprised entirely of Army Guard personnel.

According to Ellis, the event was held in preparation for a larger exercise scheduled for May, when the Kentucky CERFP will be required to demonstrate its ability to manage a coordinated response to a simulated attack involving chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive agents.

“We’re taking a ‘crawl, walk, run’ approach to our training,” Ellis said, “so this exercise was our initial stage.”

The first day of training was focused on equipment familiarization, such as assembling and breaking down tents, coordinating with the Army decontamination unit, organizing teams and preparing medical supplies.

Lt. Col. David Worley (left), chief nurse of the Kentucky Air National Guard’s 123rd Medical Group, leads Airmen from the CERFP as they position medical tents at the Wendell H. Ford Regional Training Center in Greenville, Ky., during a disaster-response exercise Nov. 28, 2011. (Courtesy photo)

The remainder of the time was spent practicing scenarios in which the CERFP was activated by an incident commander. Participants were tasked with securing the site of an attack; and coordinating the movement of search-and-recovery teams, the decontamination team and the medical unit.

“This was the first time we’ve really gotten together in the field as a team, and for most people it was the first time they had seen the equipment,” Ellis said.

“We’ve all read the Concept of Operations and know our mission, but when you’re actually setting up the equipment and doing the mission, you discover better ways of doing things and things you need to adjust,” she added.

The highlight of the exercise was the final scenario, during which the unit met all of its training evaluation timelines while processing patients and communicating movement through command-and-control channels, Ellis said.

“At the end of the week, all of the new members who took part in their first CERFP exercise were able to completely set up the medical portion of the team and were ‘patient-ready’ after just 29 minutes,” said Maj. Brian McMorrow, the CERFP’s medical plans and operations officer.

That’s more than an hour sooner than required by exercise evaluation standards, he noted. McMorrow attributes the team’s success to the attitudes of its members.

“Most things were new and there were things that did not go as planned, but everyone had a smile on their face,” he said. “The work effort was awesome all week.”

Smurf-P is the nickname given by my husband to a specific military team he recently joined. The proper acronym is CERFP (pronounced “surf-pee”), which stands for (and no, I’m not kidding): Chemical, Biological, Radiological/Nuclear, and Explosive Enhanced Response Force Package.

See? CERFP. It’s easy. And Smurfy.

Or Smurf-P, as the case may be.

Smurf-P and I are already at odds. The training that comes with my husband’s new role generally occurs on weekends that are not drill weekends. That means T is now gone two weekends a month instead of one. Since we both work fulltime, it’s not like we just sit around during the week soaking each other in. We’re working, commuting, running errands and doing housework. Weekends are when we’re supposed to relax, see friends or plan a fun activity together – in between laundry, taking the trash to the dump, grocery shopping and vacuuming up the dog hair and cat litter that threatens to bury the house on a daily basis.

What I wouldn’t give just to go see a movie with my husband.

As if that wasn’t irritating enough, this week is a full week of training for the Smurf-P. The training takes place near the armory where T drills – the one that is two and a half hours away from where we live. It doesn’t make sense for T to drive five hours a day for a full schedule of classes, so he’s staying in the area.

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In case anyone is new to this blog, I’ll also mention here that my husband got home from a year in Afghanistan last December. Oh, and he’s also National Guard, which means all this is in addition to his civilian job. That’s right. He’s not fulltime military, which means we don’t get housing pay, he doesn’t get health insurance through the military and he doesn’t get comp days for a drill weekend. The only thing we regularly get from the military is the shaft.

What was I talking about? Oh, yeah. Smurf-P. Sorry, got a little off-track.

Last week we were discussing T’s military plans and I got on a roll then, too. I commented on how often he’s been gone and will be gone in the coming months. I listed off this training and that inventory and this drill and that whatever. T ignored me as best he could, but when I didn’t get the reaction I was looking for, I kept going.

With as much distain as I could muster – using diminutives to minimalize its importance – I scoffed, “And what about your little Smurf-P-ness?”

Which sounded completely different out loud than it did in my head.

Good thing T doesn’t have a fragile ego.