The National Guard Can Do All That?
Did you know that each state’s National Guard is tasked with providing 10 essential capabilities for support to civil authorities during domestic operations? It’s almost like having an additional 10 emergency support functions (ESF) at the Governor’s disposal. Many people associate the National Guard with just a few of these capabilities such as military police and aviation. These capabilities are often the most visible to the public but are only a small fraction of available resources. Let’s take a look at the 10 capabilities and what they can provide during domestic operations.
1 Aviation/Airlift: One of the most commonly used National Guard capabilities. Domestic missions include damage assessment, fire fighting, search and rescue, medical evacuation, and heavy lift.
2 Command and Control: National Guard forces will always support the local Incident Commander. During civil support missions, these forces will always arrive with an established command and control network organic to the National Guard with a commander assigned to work for the Incident Commander.
3 Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and high-yield Explosives (CBRNE) response: Each state is fielded with at least one Civil Support Team (CST). This team of 22 immediate response personnel supports first responders by detecting and identifying CBRNE agents or substances. In addition to CSTs, 17 states have CBRNE Enhanced Response Force Packages (CERFP). This much larger team locates and extracts victims from a contaminated environment, performs mass patient/casualty decontamination, and medical triage and treatment. The CERFP is intended to fill in the 6 to 72 hour gap in our Nation’s ability to respond with conventional resources.
4 Engineering: Did you know the National Guard has engineering support to include civil engineers and construction equipment? These units are capable of horizontal as well as vertical construction. This can be vital when a community is devastated by a natural disaster and critical infrastructure is damaged or destroyed.
5 Medical: Highly trained medical staffs capable of critical care and air transport. Many of these professionals are the same staff you see when you visit your local hospitals.
6 Communications: The National Guard has the ability to deploy Emergency Operations Centers to assist local, state, and federal response agencies communicate. These agencies often use different frequency bands making multi-agency communication difficult. These assets remove that obstacle by cross-banding all radio frequencies allowing all responders to communicate regardless of frequency band.
7 Transportation: Need essential supplies delivered to disaster areas? The National Guard has entire line haul trucking companies dedicated to ground transportation. Roads impassable? Call for a helicopter or Air Force transport plane.
8 Security: National Guard police forces work hand in hand with local law enforcement to assist with security during special focus events or disasters.
9 Logistics: Water can be the single most important resource during an emergency. National Guard Water Purification Units employ the Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Units, or ROWPU to generate up to 600 gallons per hour of potable water.
10 Maintenance: Of course somebody needs to keep this equipment in working condition. The National Guard provides full and part time personnel to ensure the equipment is in good working condition and repair equipment when it breaks.
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