Tennessee National Guard conducts joint training with state civilian agencies

In an effort to find lost hikers, a Blackhawk from the 1-230th Assault Helicopter Battalion (AHB) arrived at Pickett Civilian Conservation Corps Memorial State Park.

Groups of Tennessee National Guard (TNG) soldiers, members of Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA), representatives from Tennessee State Parks, and 10 other state and local agencies were there to participate in the joint training exercises.

During this exercise, soldiers worked with rangers and members of TEMA in teams to search difficult terrain in the park. Once ‘remains’ were located, the search teams called in the medevac team from the 1-230th AHB. The helicopter hovered overhead while two members of TNG descended, retrieved the stretcher with the ‘remains’, and lifted both members of the team before departure.

Sgt Duncan Lowenthal, a flight medic with the 1-230th, said: “Any time we get to do these multi-agency trainings, it gets us ready for any time an actual disaster happens. Even though it’s good training for us, it really benefits everyone in the state.”

Practice makes perfect

In the US, nearly 2,000 people are reported as lost in the wilderness every year, with the majority found through local search and rescue operations. Sometimes, they turn into multi-day events using a variety of local resources. However, once or twice a year, these operations in the Tennessee State Parks require more resources, including the assistance of the TNG.

Lt Col. Dallas Clements, Deputy Director of Military Support for the TNG, said: “It’s really important for us to be involved in exercises like this for a couple of reasons.

“One, it allows us to develop a skill set that we don’t routinely pull on. Yes, soldiers are used to navigating and communicating in a woodland environment, they’re used to calling for a medical evacuation. But they’re not used to communicating on a civilian radio system or working with unmanned aerial systems from search and rescue. We have brought our own UAS, the Raven, and they’ll be in support.

“It’s a great opportunity for the Raven operators too. Normally in the state of Tennessee, they fly within our training areas. Here they get to work in an environment they’ve never flown in before, they get to actually look for folks in the wood line using their infrared sensors, and then radio that information to the searchers in an effort to help steer the search in the right direction.”