GRENADA, Miss. – The Mississippi National Guard, in conjunction with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and more than 30 other partnering agencies, is conducting a planned disaster response exercise throughout Tennessee and Mississippi, May 12-18. The exercise is named “Vigilant Guard 2025,” and gives participants the opportunity to activate and employ their response plans to improve mission command, relationships, and interoperability among federal, state, and local agencies.
Co-sponsored by the United States Northern Command and the National Guard Bureau, the exercise allows National Guardsmen from Mississippi, along with those from Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming, the ability to command a statewide response to a major disaster in coordination with the Mississippi and Tennessee Emergency Management Agencies.
“A primary mission of the of the MSNG’s Troop Command and its subordinate units is to provide command and control to a joint task force in response to defense support of civil authority missions during man made and natural disasters,” said Brig. Gen. Andrew S. Rendon, Commander of 66th Troop Command, Mississippi National Guard. “The multi-state earthquake exercise, Vigilant Guard, provides our staff and commanders an opportunity to exercise, test and evaluate response plans and standard operating procedures as directed by the MSNG JFH leadership. MEMA and ultimately the Governor in support of our country EMAs and local authorities as they work to restore stability to impacted areas. The five-day exercise provides us with lessons learned and findings that we can use towards preparing our units for future real-world responses.”
This year’s exercise scenario is based on a 7.5 magnitude earthquake occurring along the Mississippi River, affecting areas in north Mississippi. Exercise participants will work together to respond to numerous situations and conduct search and rescue, critical site security, and infrastructure failure response. All events will be coordinated through the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and local emergency agencies.
Due to the planned exercise, the public may notice a higher military presence in some areas throughout northern Mississippi. The Mississippi National Guard UH-72 Lakota’s will perform aerial surveys over the exercise sites to perform damage assessments and route reconnaissance as part of the overall exercise. The Mississippi National Guard will host media during certain events to demonstrate capabilities.
