CA Air National Guard to Conduct Terror Response Events in Ukraine

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Toni Gray
  • USAFENS
SACRAMENTO, Calif. --  Members of the California Air National Guard and California's Emergency Medical Services Authority will participate in a disaster response event with civilian and military personnel from Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Moldova in Odessa, Ukraine Sept 13 through Sept 21.

Activities will focus on disaster response and management following terrorist attack scenarios and the subsequent civilian emergency medical and public health response.

This international collaboration, called "Rough & Ready 2006," will involve nearly 30 people from California's Air National Guard and 30 California Emergency Management Services Authority civilian personnel.

One hundred eighty Ukrainians, mostly local responders from the Odessa area and from the Ministry of Emergencies, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Health, and the State Security Service will participate in Rough and Ready 2006, plus 36 participants from neighboring countries of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Moldova.

The scenarios include international responses to terrorist attacks on a port that houses an oil pipeline, a railway and a shopping mall.

"Many months and long hours of careful planning and coordination have gone into what will surely be one of our most successful State Partnership events," said Maj. Gen. Dennis G. Lucas, California Air National Guard commander. "Rough and Ready 2006 will demonstrate vitally important civil-military operational procedures, provide valuable training and strengthen our international ties even more."

"Our Air National Guard members, California's EMSA representatives, and their counterparts from Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and Azerbaijan have developed a solid working relationship over the past several years and I am extremely proud to be associated with an international event of this caliber," he said.

This joint civil-military disaster response effort is being conducted within the context of California's State Partnership Program with Ukraine.

Rough & Ready 2006 is the fourth such event of its kind focusing on interagency cooperation, disaster preparedness, emergency response and civil emergency planning.