By Dona Fair
CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind. – “There’s just been a terrorist attack of a 10-ton nuclear device explosion in downtown Indianapolis, and the surviving town on the outskirts needs immediate emergency aid response,” was the call that jolted the daughter of a Hartland man into action.
Luckily for Air Force Tech. Sgt. Melanie D. Berry, daughter of William J. Schueler Jr. of Hartland, the call wasn’t for a real terrorist attack, but for a federal emergency response exercise called “Vibrant Response.” 
The week-long exercise simulated a terrorist nuclear attack in the United States, and required our nation’s military from all services, along with local and state first responders to quickly be put into action.
Berry was one of more than 4,000 military and civilian participants who recently converged on Camp Atterbury’s Joint Maneuver Training Center, along with the nearby Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, and its surrounding communities in southern Indiana to test their emergency response capabilities.
“I am a member of the Air Force Radiation Assessment Team,” said Berry, who is the noncommissioned officer-in-charge of the team’s Operations and Training Section at Brooks City-Base, San Antonio, Texas.
“We provide support to the chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, high-yield explosive consequence management response force through radiological surveillance, dosimetry, laboratory analysis, and overall radiological expertise.”
With an underground tunnel system, nine miles of roads, and more than 120-plus buildings, which included a hospital, nursing home, parking garages, power plant, schools, and a police station, Muscatatuck was the perfect location for this training event.
Burning vehicles and garbage, rubbage piles, emergency sirens, and lots of smoke from fog machines and smoke candles, made the training center look like it had indeed been the site of a nuclear disaster. Role players were hired to portray survivors, and moulage experts made the injuries and ailments that they would receive by surviving such an incident look as realistic as possible.
Assessment, search and rescue, decontamination, medical, aviation, engineering and logistics missions were performed by military teams that surveyed the damage, erected triage centers, setup decontamination sites, and performed radiation tests to ensure it was safe for service members to begin work.
Search and rescue, and decontamination teams removed civilians and casualties from the devastated area. Affected victims were decontaminated and then 
triaged and provided with medical care. As ambulances and helicopters stood by, the medical team coordinated ground evacuation, hospitalization, veterinary care, preventive medicine, blood distribution, and medical logistical support of patients.
Military members constantly train for battle in a foreign country, but making sure that they are prepared to respond on American soil is also important. Training for such a catastrophe has been deemed mandatory by U.S. military officials.
“To prepare for this exercise, I helped establish roles for the task force liaison officers and the team’s tactical operations center,” said Berry, who graduated in 1994 from McNairy Central 
High School, Selmer, Tenn., and received an associate degree in bioenvironmental engineering in 2007 from the Community College of the Air Force. “We conduct our own drills and internal field training exercises as well as team training every two weeks in preparation for a real world response.”
When a natural disaster occurs, local city and county first responders are the first on the scene. But an event like a nuclear detonation would quickly require regional and national responders to assist.
For Berry and the others, an exercise like “Vibrant Response” allows everyone to work out any kinks that may arise at an inopportune time during a real disaster. Valuable lessons were learned each day including communication, logistical, and coordination issues. It also helps Berry and the others understand how federal, local and state agencies become one to complete a mission of this magnitude.
“′Vibrant Response′ is a validation of the training that we regularly conduct and the ability to operate with our joint forces to support local and regional civil authorities,” said Berry, who has been in the military for more than 12 years. “It is important to exercise with all supporting units to gain solid ground with their specific responsibilities in the big picture and how we all work together.”
Hopefully for Berry and all of the participants, lessons learned during “Vibrant Response” will never have to be used. But in case they do get that call one day, they will be prepared to respond.
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