La. Guard to participate in Vigilant Guard 2016

Large-scale disaster exercise including multiple state, federal agencies

Louisiana National Guard Public Affairs Office

PINEVILLE, La. – The Louisiana National Guard will participate in Vigilant Guard 2016 with the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness to prepare for all-hazards response and emergency operations, April 10-16.

Vigilant Guard is a federally funded exercise that is supported by the National Guard Bureau and sponsored by the United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), whose mission is to provide homeland defense, civil support and security cooperation to defend and secure the United States and its interests.

The overall exercise scenario will test the LANG’s response to a simulated Category 3 or 4 hurricane that will make landfall on the Louisiana coast.

At the Joint Emergency Services Training Center (JESTC) in Zachary, National Guard units from Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, and Texas will respond to a chemical spill from a train derailment as well as a collapsed structure exercise. Participating units include the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High Yield Explosive Enhanced Response Force Package (CERFP) from the LANG’s 61st Troop Command and the 62nd Civil Support Team, 47th CST from Mississippi, CERFPs from Florida and Texas. The Homeland Response Force from Texas, the Salvation Army, State Fire Marshall, Louisiana State Police and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality will also participate.

At the Naval Air Station – Joint Reserve Base New Orleans in Belle Chasse, role players acting as hospital patients will be processed to test the post-storm aeromedical evacuation exercise to validate the state medical institution evacuation plan and coordinate post-storm evacuation requests from affected hospitals. Role players from three local hospitals will be transported by LANG helicopters for evacuation. Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) forces from Oklahoma, Arkansas and West Virginia, as well as the Department of Health and Hospitals will participate.

At Camp Beauregard in Pineville, the Joint Operations Center will be activated to test the LANG’s command and control capabilities.

At Camp Minden, the 199th Leadership Regiment with establish the Joint Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration center to conduct training to in-process units that would arrive in Louisiana if assistance was requested as part of the EMAC.

At Roseland, the 165th Regional Support Group will occupy the commodities distribution center to prepare for commodities distribution from storm affects.

A series of simulated cyber-attacks will deface the LANG and parish websites and hack the commodities distribution inventory system to test the response of the LANG’s Defense Cyber Operations-Team and the Cyber Defense Incident Response Team (CDIRT). The Louisiana State Analytical and Fusion Exchange (LASAFE), FBI and Plaquemines Parish are also participating in the exercise. The partners will work out of the Stephenson Disaster Management Institute, Louisiana State University south campus, to conduct assessment and remediation on a closed cyber lab.

In addition to LANG forces, Guardsmen and some Title 10 forces from Texas, Florida, Arkansas, West Virginia, Colorado, Mississippi and Oklahoma will also travel to Louisiana to participate.