CAMP DOUGLAS, Wis. — It isn’t usually that the Wisconsin Nationwide Guard shares an inside take a look at what coaching seems to be like for his or her service members. Nonetheless, for the primary time in over twenty years, journalists from across the state had been invited to journey from Milwaukee to Volk Subject in Juneau County to see what a day within the Wisconsin Nationwide Guard can appear to be.
The primary cease, by way of a Blackhawk Helicopter, was on the primary grounds of Volk Subject to see the REACT Heart, a coaching facility created by means of a partnership between the Nationwide Guard and Wisconsin Emergency Administration.
The REACT Heart is utilized by each navy and civilian first responders to coach for a wide range of emergency conditions. From automobile extrications to simulated constructing collapses, they will apply all of it.
Whereas first responders usually get apply with real-world conditions like fires and medical emergencies, apply with rarer occasions like constructing collapses are few and much between. That’s why the middle provides that necessary coaching alternative, REACT Heart Director Matt Davies mentioned.
“In case you haven’t breached a concrete panel in 4 years, it’ll take you some time to recollect, get the muscle reminiscence going, however we attempt to construct that muscle reminiscence so when it occurs at 3 a.m., it comes again as a behavior already,” mentioned Davies.
The subsequent cease on the Wisconsin Nationwide Guard coaching tour took us about 35 miles north of Volk Subject to Hardwood Vary, an space the place navy plane are in a position to apply capturing targets on the bottom. On the day we visited, F-16s from Madison had been touring to apply.
Maj. Kalen Stoddard is Volk Subject’s Director of Operational Coaching. Stoddard mentioned navy items from throughout the nation apply at Hardwood due to the real-world like alternatives it offers. Currently, Madison’s F-16s have been a typical sight.
“They’ve been doing this now because the starting of July: two drills a day, as soon as within the morning and as soon as within the afternoons, and doing the identical sort of mission each day they’re popping out right here,” mentioned Stoddard.
When it comes right down to it, the aim of the Guard’s coaching is to maintain individuals across the state and past secure.
