Ohio National Guard News

SRBIJA 2018: Multinational exercise shows that when disaster strikes, saving lives a universal language

Story, Video and Photos by Capt. Paul Stennett, Ohio National Guard Public Affairs

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attends the opening ceremony for SRBIJA 2018 alongside Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, Oct. 8, 2018. Ohio National Guard members participated in “Serbia 2018,” a consequence management exercise that involved an earthquake scenario; a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear response; water rescue; and urban search and rescue, Oct. 8 -11, 2018. This exercise allowed Ohio National Guard members the opportunity to participate in the 18th Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Center (EADRCC) exercise, one of the largest exercises organized by NATO. It was the first time the Republic of Serbia has hosted the event, which included around 2,000 personnel from almost 40 countries.

Diane Acurio, civil-military emergency preparedness project lead and member of the core planning team for the NATO Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Center (EADRCC)-led SRBIJA 2018 exercise, speaks to her team of evaluators.

Students play mock victims in the NATO-led SRBIJA 2018 exercise, Oct. 9, 2018.

A woman playing an accident victim looks over her wound during the NATO-led SRBIJA 2018 exercise, Oct. 10, 2018.

Participants discuss how to proceed during a mock disaster incident as part of the NATO-led SRBIJA 2018 exercise, Oct. 9, 2018.

A water rescue team prepares to participate in the water portion during the NATO-led SRBIJA 2018 exercise, Oct. 10, 2018.

MLADENOVAC, SERBIA (10/17/18) — Members of the Ohio National Guard participated in SRBIJA 2018 (Serbia 2018), a consequence management exercise that involved an earthquake scenario; a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear response; water rescue; and urban search and rescue, Oct. 8-11.

The exercise allowed Ohio National Guard members the opportunity to participate in the 18th Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Center (EADRCC) exercise, one of the largest exercises organized by NATO. It was the first time the Republic of Serbia had hosted the event, which included around 2,000 personnel from almost 40 countries.

The Ohio National Guard's involvement enhanced partner capacity in emergency and disaster response (ER/DR). Guard members worked alongside the Sector for Emergency Management within the Serbian Ministry of Interior, where they offered expertise from a military perspective in ER/DR. The end state of the exercise was to improve and enhance Serbia and regional partners' ability to respond and recover to natural or man-made disasters, cooperate across borders and receive international assistance.

Among those involved were Airmen from the 179th Airlift Wing, located in Mansfield, Ohio and the 121st Air Refueling Wing, based in Columbus, Ohio. The Airmen joined the exercise as evaluators, to help observe and offer critical feedback on the scenarios that participants exercised.

Through the Department of Defense State Partnership Program, the National Guard conducts military-to-military engagements in support of U.S. security goals but also leverages whole-of-society relationships and capabilities to facilitate broader interagency and corollary engagements spanning military, government, economic and social spheres. The Ohio National Guard has been paired with the Republic of Serbia through the SPP since 2006, and this year is celebrating 25 years of its other SPP pairing with Hungary.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who attended the opening ceremony alongside Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, said, “Serbia 2018 is not a military exercise, but a platform for civilian first responders and the military, from allied and partner countries, to learn from each other how they can save lives.”

Stoltenberg continued: “This is a testing exercise that will show our strengths and weaknesses, enable us to learn together, and to get better together, and it is also a great example (of) how Serbia's partnership with NATO can reap great benefits.”

This exercise allowed the ONG a great opportunity to achieve this goal and also allowed the National Guard, in particular, to showcase how it is uniquely positioned to work with civilian agencies within the U.S. to respond to ER/DR events, which distinguishes the National Guard from other U.S. military components.

With diverse skill sets and a wealth of experience in the emergency management field, these Airmen showcased their knowledge through their previous interactions with civilian agencies and, in many cases, from their years of service in the civilian sector. The ONG Airmen specialize in emergency management as well as fire and emergency services. Their expertise in the field allowed them to oversee and evaluate the effectiveness of the participants across six different sites in Serbia.

“We've been working under the civil-military emergency preparedness program with Serbia for many years and …we always invite the Ohio National Guard (State) Partnership Program to join us in our events,” said Diane Acurio, civil-military emergency preparedness project lead, member of the core planning team for the NATO EARDCC (SRBIJA 2018) and evaluation team leader. “We see their value as experts in their field, in emergency preparedness, so when Serbia began to plan this event, we brought Ohio experts with us, knowing that they'd bring value especially in the areas of CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear).”

With readiness as one of the National Guard's top priorities, it is events and experience such as this exercise that provide value to its Soldiers and Airmen. With the opportunity to work in a multinational exercise, the benefits yielded go far beyond being fit to fight.

“This is a great opportunity for the National Guard to work with not just military-to-military partnerships but military-to-civilian as well; this is one place where the National Guard is unique,” said Lt. Col. Timothy Grady, commander of the 121st Air Refueling Wing Civil Engineering Squadron, Ohio Air National Guard. “These are exactly the kind of things we try to find for our guardsmen. Whether it's through the State Partnership Program or other exercises, these are the type of relationships we are trying to develop, the experiences we are trying to give to our guardsmen. From a training perspective, and to an overall growth perspective, these relationships are invaluable.”

SRBIJA 2018 challenged the Ohio Air National Guard members. The exercise ran participants through several different scenarios to exercise their command and control abilities along with overcoming the obstacles that come with a multinational, multilingual response, all in the effort to improve interoperability to potentially save lives. While the Airmen are experts in their field, their experience with multinational civil response agencies is limited. Overcoming language barriers, cultural differences and ensuring the participants stayed safe while executing the mission was critical.

“Our role here as an evaluation team is to support CBRN operations — our guys have a lot of expertise in a CBRN facet, and they are used to working together and training in real-life responses, but we are not used to this massive full-scale multinational exercise,” said Ohio Air National Guard Senior Master Sgt. Joshua Chapman, 179th Airlift Wing installation emergency manager and 200th RED HORSE (Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer) Squadron first sergeant. “It''s been awesome to see the experts here. They may not always speak the same language but when it comes to saving lives, they've been able to bridge the language barrier.”

When disasters strike, the unimaginable can happen and that is what these emergency responders train for. The lessons learned from these teams of life savers will benefit everyone in the future, with best practices and processes identified.

Master Sgt. John Jennings, 179th AW Fire and Emergency Services assistant chief of operations, described the collaborative effort between the nations involved in SRBIJA 2018: “Although there may be a language barrier at times, it's safe to say that we all speak the same language when it comes to first responders; we all speak the same language when it comes to safety; we all speak the same language when it comes to helping and providing aid to those who need it.”