Story by Sgt. 1st Class Craig Norton March 04, 2022 at 10:42PM Joint Task Force – 60, from the North Carolina National Guard’s Headquarters 60th Troop Command, assisted the Homeland Defense/Civil Support Office (HDCSO) as role players during the Arctic Eagle-Patriot 2022 training exercise at the Fire Department Training Facility in Anchorage, Alaska, Feb. 27 – March 1, 2022. 60th Troop Command is a military formation equivalent in size to a brigade. It provides a command and control headquarters and planning staff for units not aligned to a brigade or division. They’re able to deploy as a joint task force, which controls all state military assets supporting civil authorities during a natural, man-made disaster. The JTF’s service members provided critical feedback about personnel dry-based decontamination processes of contaminated patients/casualties (ambulatory and non-ambulatory) to determine how to respond to future chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents in a cold-weather environment. “It’s pretty cool we’re testing out the next generation of military technology,” said Spc Camerin Holocomb, an intelligence analyst. “So, if any cold-weather region were to be infected by a radiological agent, the military, governmental or civilian agencies would be able to perform decon without liquid.” JTF-60’s ability to deploy from North Carolina to Alaska shows how ready, reliable, responsive and relevant they are. “We are honored to be chosen to participate in this type of exercise, combined with different local, state and federal agencies doesn’t happen a lot,” U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Giovanni Ford, the first sergeant of Joint Task Force – 60. The joint decontamination operations with the U.S. Marine Corps and Canadian military couldn’t have been successful without the NCNG JTF service members. “We’re very thankful for our role players,” said Drew Reichert, a physical scientist with the HDCSO. “The role players provide so much detailed information that helps us out throughout this effort. Their feedback has changed, not only the technology but procedures and refined things so as to better future processes. Exercise Arctic Eagle-Patriot 22 increases the National Guard’s capacity to operate in austere, extreme cold-weather environments across Alaska and the Arctic region. AEP22 enhances the ability of military and civilian inter-agency partners to respond to a variety of emergency and homeland security missions across Alaska and the Arctic.
