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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 28, 2008 No. 08-033
Kansas Governor Hosts Ribbon Cutting for first training venue at Great Plains Joint Regional Training Center; and Groundbreaking for new Air Guard facility in Salina Kansas Governor Hosts Ribbon Cutting for first training venue at Great Plains Joint Regional Training Center; and Groundbreaking for new Air Guard facility in Salina Today, Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the Adjutant General and Director of Kansas Homeland Security, hosted a ribbon cutting for the debut of the Crisis City Rail Venue at the Great Plains Joint Regional Training Center (GPJRTC) in Salina. Rail Training Venue The railcar venue is the first training feature of Crisis City, which is a hands-on homeland security public safety training area at the GPJRTC. This rail training venue will allow emergency responders from local, state and federal organizations, including law enforcement, search and rescue teams, medical response teams, public and private industry safety professionals and the National Guard, to train together, conduct exercises and work through realistic disaster scenarios. "Kansas is among one of the first states in the country to develop such a training opportunity for our first responders and National Guardsmen to better prepare together for emergencies and disasters," said Sebelius. "Crisis City, at the Great Plains Joint Regional Training Center, will fill a gap that our state has had for some time and that’s the chance for those who work together in a disaster response to actually come together in a realistic training environment and determine the best course of action before lives are at stake." "Until now, Kansas first responders, including the National Guard, train on their own, but today this will change with a new opportunity for inter-agency training on a regular basis," said Bunting. "In 2007, we learned a great deal about how well we can work together and we’ll take our lessons learned from those disasters and improve our response capabilities even more." In-kind contributions of approximately $12 million made the rail venue possible. The locomotive and other rail cars were provided by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. They were moved and the tracks set in place by R.J. Corman Railroad Group. Other contributions of equipment and labor came from Union Pacific Railway Company, Occidental Chemical Corporation, J.R. Simplot Company, Mid-America Car, Inc. and Energy Transportation. "The rail industry shares the state’s interest in safety training and the rail venue at this facility will provide permanent training capabilities not previously available to emergency responders in Kansas," said Mark Stehly, BNSF’s assistant vice president, Environmental/Haz Mat/Technical Research and Development. Crisis City at the GPJRTC will eventually be expanded to include an incident command training center, an engineered concrete rubble pile, urban search and rescue venues, a grain bin for search and rescue training, a farm training venue to provide training for farming and grain silo accidents and a five-story rescue training tower. It will also provide training in military operations and urban terrain. "We are building a state of the art joint training center to ensure the people we call upon to save lives and property have the best resources possible to prepare to respond during what could be very challenging circumstances," said Col. Randy Roebuck, GPJRTC Garrison Commander. 284th Air Support Operations Squadron Sebelius and Bunting also hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for a new facility for the Kansas Air Guard’s 284th Air Support Operations Squadron (ASOS) at the Smoky Hill Range in Salina. The 284th ASOS is a new Kansas Air National Guard unit and will provide joint training capabilities with the Kansas Army National Guard. Senator Sam Brownback secured $9 million dollars in funding for the ASOS’s new facility. "The ASOS facility adds an important new dimension to operations at the Smoky Hill Range, which has become a unique national training asset," Brownback said. "The new squadron that will operate out of this facility will train our soldiers and airmen to coordinate their operations in the field, making them safer and more combat-capable." The targeted completion date for the 284th ASOS facility is one year. "This unit is unique because it brings the ground forces and air forces together to conduct joint training," said Lt. Col. J.J. Jordan, commander of the 284th Air Support Operations Squadron. "The ASOS can facilitate the process by training the Army how to best employ air power. We do this in military operations, but don’t typically have a training venue where we can train jointly." "Because of the ASOS mission to provide air power to ground forces, the 284th will be a key component to joint military training operations at the Great Plains Joint Regional Training Center," Jordan said. In addition, the ASOS can also provide communications resources for homeland security needs in Kansas during disaster response. Great Plains Joint Regional Training Center Future Capabilities In addition to the Crisis City Rail Venue and the 284th ASOS facility,
some additional training capabilities are currently being constructed
at the GPJRTC and will be completed in the next year. Congressman Jerry Moran secured $3.5 million dollars in funding for the Great Plains Joint Regional Training Center. Specifically, he secured $2.4 million for establishing urban terrain operations which will include military and civilian training components and will be built over the next year, and $1.1 million for refurbishing and providing additional space at the Smoky Hill Range’s operations facility for training, mission planning and debriefing. "These added capabilities will help put Smoky Hill Range on the map as one of the top joint training installations in the country," Moran said. "Today, we witnessed collaboration from all levels of government and from private partners to support our war fighters and first responders. We have something special here in Salina. Smoky Hill Range plays a vital role in national and homeland defense. We will continue to enhance and highlight this jewel on the Kansas prairie." Congresswoman Nancy Boyda also secured $2.1 million in federal funds for equipment, radio and safety upgrades for the training capabilities at Smoky Hill Range. "I am happy to support the Kansas Guard’s efforts to make the Great Plains Joint Regional Training Center a reality," said Boyda. "This type of facility is badly needed not only within the state, but across the nation. This equipment will allow anyone using the facility to train as close to real world as possible." "The Great Plains Joint Regional Training Center is preparing our
military forces for missions here and abroad, and the joint military and
civilian training venues will ensure they are not only ready to respond,
but also prepared to take the best course of action due to extensive training
with others involved," Sebelius said. Another military training capability at GPJRTC, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, will provide a potential homeland security response in the future. The testing of different unmanned vehicles, to include the Aerosonde and CQ10 SnowGoose, for disaster response scenarios is ongoing and will expand in the future. Combining UAV flights in the GPJRTC with the skilled imagery analysts of the Wichita-based 184th Intelligence Wing of the Kansas Air National Guard provides a unique opportunity to perfect the delivery of real time video and imagery products for first responders during emergencies. "Both the Crisis City and ASOS capabilities will enhance our military
pre-mobilization training," Bunting added. "Recently the 1st
Battalion, 161st Field Artillery made history when conducting the first
Kansas Guard pre-mobilization training here at the Great Plains Joint
Regional Training Center before deploying to Iraq. This resulted in a
much shorter training time out of state and kept the soldiers closer to
home and their families for a longer time period." -30- |
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