By Cathy Spaulding
CAMP GRUBER — Around 1:15 a.m. Tuesday, vehicle explosions rocked police stations, fire stations and hospitals surrounding an international summit in Braggs.
By 4 a.m. Tuesday, the scenario went from “accident” to “attack” as area bridges and hotels went down.
By 2 p.m., National Guard units from Illinois and Oklahoma, Marines from Maryland, and a U.S. Air Force unit from Illinois were inspecting homes for radiation, rescuing victims from destroyed buildings and treating casualties. They also had to make sure everyone was communicating effectively.
All these emergencies were part of a training exercise, simulating a weapons of mass destruction attack, for the various military units and civil support teams (CSTs). The exercise will continue through Thursday.
Major Rob Matthews, range OPS officer at Camp Gruber, said Tuesday’s exercise brought members of active duty military together with National Guard. He said active duty forces often work differently from National Guard units, so the exercise helped them communicate more effectively.
The scenario, a fictitious International G35 Healthcare Summit in Braggs, was set up by Response International Group, an Oklahoma City consulting group that provides training for emergency responders and the armed forces.
“The G35 summit first presented a series of small attacks, then coordinated into larger attacks on police departments and nursing homes,” said Mike Shannon, general manager of Response International Group. “There were explosives on bridges, hospitals and nursing homes.”
Such a simulation is “more widespread than a disaster drill,” Shannon said. “It is a lawless type of event. There are elements of a disaster drill, with the component of multiple threats to responders.”
He said the base of operations and logistics center is running around the clock responding to the events.
“We first started with the call at 0100 hours and with the coordinated attack at 0400 hours,” Shannon said. “This is what changed our opinion of ‘This is an accident,’ to ‘This is an attack.’”
At 33,027 acres, Camp Gruber proved just the right place for the simulation, Shannon said. “No place has an area this large.”
He said the area can spread for five miles in different directions.
“They have plane particles we can lay out into trees,” he said.
Slabs of concrete — some dating to World War II — were stacked to simulate a bombed building, giving units training in search and rescue.
An old house was “contaminated” with radiation to help train members of the 63rd Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team, an Oklahoma National Guard unit that is available at all times, said Lt. Col. Bobby Finegan.
Finegan said the team is similar to a fire department HAZMAT team, but with communication capabilities.
“Our primary mission is to advise the civilian incident command, the local fire department, during an emergency,” he said, adding that, by working with the local fire department, “We know the hazards we are up against.”
Role players from the area played victims of the attack.
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