The North Dakota National Guard's 81st Civil Support Team and South Dakota's 82nd CST will participate in a multi-agency emergency response exercise with civilian responders at Camp Grafton Training Center, Devils Lake, N.D., Sept. 13-17.
The exercise will incorporate a variety of training scenarios designed to test security on Camp Grafton and the collective agencies' ability to respond to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high yield explosive incident.
Civilian agencies participating in the exercise include the Devils Lake Fire Department, Grand Forks Fire Department and Devils Lake Police Department.
The North Dakota Air National Guard's 119th Emergency Management Flight will also take part in the exercise.
North Dakota Army National Guard's 136th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion will support Roads Acting as Dams operations in another planned emergency response scenario.
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The CBRNE and RAAD scenarios will provide the opportunity for National Guard units and civilian responders to further enhance their preparedness, cooperation and response capabilities.
The 81st CST has 22 members who are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the event or suspicion of a weapons of mass destruction attack. This mobile unit has the ability to respond to an incident site within 90 minutes of being called.
The unit conducts periodic exercises and attends training to ensure they are mission-ready. In October 2009, a team of evaluators from U.S. Army North validated the 81st CST's mission-ready status during an exercise with the Bismarck Fire Department at the North Dakota State Capitol.
