U.S. and Canada kick off Ardent Sentry exercises
Emergency response drill will last two weeks and feature fifteen maritime, WMD, and air defense scenarios
Where’s our invitation? Like any other warmblooded Americans, we thrive on action, so its a shame we will not be in the thick of things this week as thousands of active-duty and National Guard servicemembers take part in Operation Ardent Sentry/Northern Edge 2007. The two-week nationwide emergency preparedness and response exercise is intended to test crisis-response coordination between federally controlled military forces and National Guard units under the command of state governors and includes participation by NORAD, DHS, and the Canadian armed forces.
More than fifteen different scenarios will be employed at locations nationwide, including a maritime disaster in Alaska involving the Canadian navy, an air defense action, a hurricane in the northeast, and a nuclear-weapon explosion in Indiana that will involve more than 2,000 active-duty troops and almost 1,000 Guard members. “National Guard soldiers … will always be the first military forces to respond to an emergency because of their proximity,” DHS Peter Verga explained. The Indiana sites provide “a very realistic environment that’ll allow the soldiers to operate in an urban environment and see how they’ll have to respond to that kind of emergency.”
