|
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE Oct. 1, 2009
No. 09-110
Ribbon Cutting held for Crisis City and new Air Guard facility
in Salina at Great Plains Joint Training Center
Kansas
officials held ribbon cutting ceremonies Oct. 1 for Crisis City and the new
Kansas Air Guard facility in Salina at the Great Plains Joint Training
Center.
284th
Air Support Operations Squadron Ribbon Cutting
Maj. Gen.
Tod Bunting, Kansas adjutant general and director of Kansas Division of
Emergency Management and Kansas Homeland Security, hosted a ribbon cutting
ceremony for the headquarters for the Kansas Air Guard's 284th Air Support
Operations Squadron at the Smoky Hill Range in Salina.
"The
opening of this facility also marks the day we are officially standing up
this new Kansas Guard unit," Bunting said. "The 284th Air Support
Operations Squadron is one of only 14 in the entire Air National Guard and
we're proud to have it here in Salina."
The 284th
ASOS brings ground forces and air forces together to conduct joint training
and will be a key component to joint military training operations at the
Great Plains Joint Training Center. In addition, the ASOS can also provide
communications resources for homeland security needs in Kansas during
disaster response.
Senator Sam
Brownback secured $9 million dollars in funding for the ASOS's new
facility. McPherson Contractors, Inc., in Topeka completed the facility in
a little over a year. A groundbreaking was held in March 28, 2008 for the
33,000 square foot facility.
Crisis
City Training Site
Lt. Gov.
Troy Findley and Bunting also hosted a ribbon cutting for the debut of the
Crisis City training site, which is a hands-on homeland security public
safety training area at the GPJTC. This training venue will allow emergency
responders from local, state and federal organizations, including law
enforcement, search and rescue teams, medical response teams, public and
private industry safety professionals and the National Guard, to train
together, conduct exercises and work through realistic disaster scenarios.
Crisis City
at the GPJTC includes a completed rail training venue and will also include
an engineered concrete rubble pile, urban search and rescue venues, a grain
bin for search and rescue training, a farm training venue to provide
training for farming and grain silo accidents and a five-story rescue
training tower. It will also provide training in military operations and
urban terrain.
In-kind
contributions of approximately $12 million made the rail venue at Crisis
City possible. The locomotive and other rail cars were provided by
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. They were moved and the tracks set in
place by R.J. Corman Railroad Group. Other contributions of equipment and
labor came from Union Pacific Railway Company, Occidental Chemical
Corporation, J.R. Simplot Company, Mid-America Car, Inc. and Energy
Transportation.
"Kansas
is among one of the first states in the country to develop such a training
opportunity for our first responders and National Guardsmen to prepare
together for disasters," said Bunting.
Great
Plains Joint Training Center Future Capabilities
In addition
to the Crisis City Rail Venue and the 284th ASOS facility, some additional
training capabilities are currently being constructed at the GPJTC.
Congressman Jerry Moran secured $3.5 million dollars in funding for the
Great Plains Joint Training Center. Specifically, he secured $2.4 million
for establishing urban terrain operations which will include military and
civilian training components which will be built over the next year, and
$1.1 million for refurbishing and providing additional space at the Smoky
Hill Range's operations facility for training, mission planning and
debriefing.
Another
military training capability at GPJTC, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, provides a
potential homeland security response in the future. Combining UAV flights
in the GPJTC with the skilled imagery analysts of the Wichita-based 184th
Intelligence Wing of the Kansas Air National Guard provides a unique
opportunity to perfect the delivery of real time video and imagery products
for first responders during emergencies.
The Vigilant
Guard 2009 exercise, held in Salina, Kan., at the Great Plains Joint
Training Center's Crisis City training venue, was the site's first
large-scale exercise which included local, state and federal response
partners from throughout Kansas. The scenario involved an explosion
resulting in a train derailment and a hazardous chemical spill, which
resulted in a second explosion propelling a railcar into a building and
causing a building collapse. In the scenario, there was an indication that
terrorism was behind the event, which impacted the search and rescue
efforts. This derailment portion of the event scenario was carried out at
Crisis City's rail disaster venue which includes an engine and rail
cars.
|
