Air Guard rescue unit practices skills during exercise

  • Published
  • By Army Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy
  • National Guard Bureau
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AFNS) --  When the 212th Rescue Squadron Airmen of the Alaska Air National Guard arrived on-scene, the apartment complex was a jumble of broken concrete and unstable support beams.

An aftershock from an 8.5 magnitude earthquake the day earlier had collapsed the structure; large slabs had crushed cars and some sections were barely recognizable as a building.

Squadron members prepared their gear to enter the remains of the building, shore up unstable areas and extract a victim caught in the rubble.

The rubble and mission were real; the earthquake, however, was part of a training scenario held here during an urban search and rescue exercise, Vigilant Guard 2010. Vigilant Guard is an annual, disaster-based training scenario that tests the coordination of National Guard units with local, state, regional, and national disaster preparedness organizations.

It gave members of the 212th RS another chance to hone their specialized rescue skills.

"That's the best part," said Master Sgt. Chad Moore, a rescue technician with the unit. "It helps to keep us proficient in our confined spaced skills, so if this were a real incident, we're better prepared to respond to it."

As part of the Vigilant Guard exercise, the squadron members worked with the Anchorage Fire Department and other local first responders.

The exercise gives guardmembers a chance to build a greater working relationship with those local first responders, Sergeant Moore said.

"We're all after the same goal," he said. "It just takes coordination, that's all it is. They have their team leaders and we have ours. Everyone wants to do the same thing; you just need to make sure that all the assets aren't going to one location."

Working with several agencies is exactly what would happen should an earthquake or other disaster hit Alaska, Sergeant Moore said.

"We don't have vast resources (within one agency in Alaska)," he said. "That's why you see a multi-agency thing here. You have to pool your assets and go from there."

Being able to respond quickly to missions around the world, whether in a training environment or a real incident, is part of the squadron member's skill set.