Kansas Adjutant General's Department to hold ribbon cutting
Salina, Kan. (September 28, 2009)- The new Kansas National Guard's 284th Air Support
Operations Squadron mission will formally be put in place with a ribbon
cutting for the unit's headquarters building at the Great Plains Joint Training
Center, Thursday, at 10 a.m.
In addition, the formal ribbon cutting for the
"Crisis City" training venue at the GPJTC will begin at 11 a.m.
outside the incident command center.
Federal, congressional and state senators and representatives as well as
agency partners and many agency partners are invited to the event.
The Air Support Operations Squadron mission serves as a
counterpart to Army soldiers in air-supported missions, assisting in using
aircraft as close-air support.
The GPJTC serves to enhance the state's capabilities to defend against
terrorism and respond to disasters and emergencies. The center provides
venues to ensure state and local first responders, the Kansas National
Guard and public safety organizations have state-of-the art training
facilities.
The Great Plains Joint Training Center, which includes
Smoky Hill Weapons Range, will serve as a training hub. The center
currently has approximately 36,000 acres for air and ground training.
The training center concept resulted from the Adjutant General's Department
work with numerous state and local government agencies and public safety
professional organizations to determine how best to integrate the needs of
emergency responders, public safety and the National Guard into realistic
training and exercise facilities.
State and federal partners include: Kansas Fire Marshal's Office, Kansas
Bureau of Investigation, Kansas Department of Transportation, Kansas
Highway Patrol, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Kansas
Wildlife and Parks Department, Emergency Medical Services, Transportation
Security Administration, emergency management, public and private industry,
sheriff's departments, police departments, fire departments, university
police, and other military Reserve components.
In June an exercise was held at the GPJTC which included
a scenario simulating the terrorist introduction of foreign animal disease
into the
state and concluded with a train disaster.
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