Here's how you know
 **Official websites use .mil** .mil
 **Secure .mil websites use HTTPS** lock () https://


Skip to main content (Press Enter).
 Toggle navigation
            
            
            
            
            National Guard
                        Always Ready Always There
                    National Guard
            
            Search National Guard:
                        Search
                    Search
                        Search National Guard:
                            Search
    Home

    News
    
        Guard News

    Overseas Operations

    State Partnership Program

    News Features

    RSS Feeds

    Press Releases

    Transcripts

    Features
    
        Features by Year

    Posture Statement

    State Partnership Program

    Special Features

    About the Guard
    
        How We Began

    Air National Guard

    Army National Guard    
    
        DEERS Soldier Journey

    Leader Development Program

    History and Heritage

    I am the Guard

    NGB Official March

    Leadership
    
        CNGB

    VCNGB

    SEA

    DANG

    DARNG

    Joint Staff    
    
        J-1

    J-2

    J-3

    J-4

    J-5

    J-6

    J-7

    J-8

    Personal Staff    
    
        Inspector General

    General Counsel    
    
        Special Victims Counsel

    Public Affairs

    Executive Support Services

    Legislative Liaison

    Special Staff    
    
        Office of the Provost Marshal

    Office of the Joint Surgeon

    Director of Acquisitions

    Small Business Programs

    Chaplain

    Senior Leader Management Office

    Diversity Equity Inclusion

    Comptroller

    Resources    
        National Defense Strategy Implementation Guidance

    Community Engagement

    FOIA

    Fact Sheets

    Helpful Links

    Image Gallery
    
        News Images

    Graphics

    Historical Paintings

    Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

    Legislative Liaison

    Small Business Programs

    Social Media

    State Websites

    Videos    
    
        Featured Videos

    On Every Front

    2019 Videos

    2020 Videos

    2021 Videos

    Suicide Prevention

    Family Programs

    Environmental

    Trial Defense Service

    Holistic Wellness Challenge

    Contact Us  Home
  News
  Article View
 
 Download
 Details
 Share
 NEWS
 Cal Guard Response Force Proves Capabilities During ExEVAL By Staff Sgt. Crystal Housman,
                California National Guard Public Affairs
 CAMP ROBERTS, Calif. – More than 500 California National Guard Soldiers and Airmen proved their mettle March 27-31 during the California Homeland Response Force’s external evaluation exercise at Camp Roberts. Service members worked 12-hour shifts for a week straight while responding to simulated crisis response missions resulting from a series of notional large-scale chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive blasts impacting cities in Nevada and Arizona. They were observed and graded by a team from the Army Interagency Training & Education Center, the National Guard Bureau and First Army. The external evaluation (ExEval) is usually required every other year, but because of the deadly California wildfires in 2018 and the COVID-19 pandemic, this was the HRF’s first evaluated exercise in seven years. “We missed two rounds of HRF ExEVALs based on real life and the global pandemic,” said U.S. Army Col. Eric Sharyer, commander of the California Army National Guard’s 49th Military Police Brigade. “That’s the longest a HRF has ever gone without an ExEVAL, and they [National Guard Bureau leadership] were concerned.” Sharyer said the exercise evaluators were augmented by a leadership team representing the National Guard’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Response Enterprise, which encompasses all National Guard weapons of mass destruction and CBRN response efforts, including smaller-scale Civil Support Teams and midsized CBRN Enhanced Force Packages. The enterprise also includes 10 larger-scale Homeland Response Forces nationwide – including the one Sharyer commands – with one force positioned in each FEMA district to provide a broad range of capabilities at a moment’s notice when requested by civil authorities. Each force can deploy to conduct command and control and work alongside first responders in casualty assistance, search and extraction, decontamination and medical triage and stabilization. Over five days, the evaluators and National Guard leadership team watched the HRF work through scenarios and challenges in the field and command post. The HRF built on lessons learned from an internal, ungraded January exercise to prepare for the week, Sharyer said. “We had a very aggressive glide path to get here with multiple staff exercises, and then we had a collective training event in January where I brought the evaluators out because I wanted to get a true azimuth of where we were at,” Sharyer said. The training paid off for Spc. Roxana Laub from the brigade’s 40th Military Police Company based in Los Alamitos. “We have been blessed and fortunate to have some of the best training in the last three years with making sure we’re fully prepared for any sort of chemical warfare, weapons of mass destruction incident,” Laub said in the field near an elaborate rubble pile where fellow service members were conducting fatality search and extraction, while others conducted medical evaluations and decontamination of role players. The team made some adjustments for the graded exercise based on January’s experience. They moved their plans cell into the early entry command post to improve planners’ situational awareness and data. “We revamped our whole process on how we plan for an OPORD [operations order],” Sharyer said. “We put our plans cell with our early entry command post to build a better plan because they have more information than the rear. That proved to be the key component of our success.” For the March iteration, evaluators observed the force for one day and provided feedback and training as needed for two days. The week culminated with a 36-hour graded external evaluation based on the team’s response to a simulated 10-kiloton nuclear detonation in Arizona. “Our Day One here was not bad; it was pretty good. So we made some tweaks. Day Two, we made some tweaks. Day Three, we made some tweaks,” Sharyer said. “So on Day Four of the exercise, which is Day One of the ExEVAL, I was very confident going in.” At 4 p.m. Friday, after a day and a half spent responding to simulated calamity after calamity, the command post erupted in cheers as exercise controllers called “EndEx” to officially end the simulation. “Every one of you have put in a lot of time and a lot of hard work,” said Capt. Levi Bragg, a command post evaluator from the Army Interagency Training & Education Center. “Whether your community knows it or not, they are safer for your sacrifice. May they never need your service.” Sharyer believes his team is the best-trained HRF in the nation. “We stand ready to protect the citizens of California and the citizens of the United States in any CBRN event,” he said. “We’re trained well, equipped well and this evaluation is the proof of that.” California’s Homeland Response Force is a regionally-oriented joint task force hosted by the California National Guard to support incidents in FEMA Region IX, which includes Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, Republic of Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and 150 tribal nations.
--
Spc. Devon Gasparini contributed to this report
 SHARE
 PRINT
  California National Guard
 ExEval
 disaster response
 CBRN exercise
 
 Maryland Guard Joins Homeland Disaster Response Exercise
 By 1st Lt. Jasmine Mathews,
  Guard Employs AI to Battle Wildfires, Improve Disaster Response
 By Master Sgt. Erich Smith,
  The Hometown Heroes of Tower 22
 By Sgt. 1st Class Zach Sheely,
  More
 Idaho Air Guard Conducts Panther Shadow Exercise5/3/2024Massachusetts Guard Helps Host Crisis Leadership Seminar5/2/2024Massachusetts Air Guard Airmen Test New Air Combat Tactics5/2/2024 View more Guard News »
 Vermont Army Guard Soldiers Attend Brazilian Mountain School5/3/2024
New York Army Guard Soldiers Heading to North Africa4/30/2024
Pennsylvania National Guard Members Deploy to Africa4/19/2024 View more Overseas Operations News »
 North Carolina Guard Welcomes New Zambian State Partnership5/3/2024

Guard Leaders Stress NCOs Role in State Partnership Program5/3/2024

Enduring Partners 2024 Begins with Thai-US Airmen Exchange5/2/2024 View more State Partnership Program News »
 Back-to-school tools for military families8/11/2015DoD sends blended military retirement proposal to Congress6/16/2015First employment symposium held for National Guard spouses5/11/2015 View more Family Programs News »
 Home
 Site Map
 Privacy & Security Policy
 Link Disclaimer
 Web Policy
 DOD Information Quality
 DOD Open GovernmentFOIA
 No FEAR Act
 Accessibility/Section 508
 Contact Us
 Army Guard Careers
 Air Guard Careers
 USA.gov
                    
Staying Connected
    XYouTubeFlickrFacebookInstagram
                 
                
                

Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil