National Guard Participates In Emergency Preparedness Drill At Port Of Catoosa

The Oklahoma National Guard along with soldiers from six other states is taking part in a disaster drill at the Port of Catoosa Tuesday morning.

The exercise, called Operation Sooner Response, centers around a scenario where domestic terrorists release chemical and biological weapons in the aftermath of a magnitude 7.5 earthquake.

At the Port of Catoosa, it's business as usual at the manufacturing facilities. But nearby, National Guard members are training for the out of the ordinary.

A group from the Oklahoma Air National Guard's 138th Security Force Squadron and Missouri Guard members are taking part in a drill combining earthquake response with a biological or chemical attack.

"Basically the scenario is during the earthquake the home grown terrorists saw this as an opportunity to go out and attack the city, so we're going around the city looking at buildings trying to find where their production facilities are," said Captain Theresa Wagner, Missouri National Guard.

The exercise is being held simultaneously at several other locations in Oklahoma with guard members from seven states.

"We say we never want to exchange business cards at an actual incident, so this allows us to get to know people, get to know capabilities. And work out any kinks we may have a training event so in the event of a real world deal we're not delaying support to the citizens of Oklahoma or whatever area we're responding to," said Major Greg Farr, Oklahoma National Guard.

The joint training is called "Operation Sooner Response." Since similar exercises are being held at several locations in Oklahoma, it's also good training for leaders at headquarters who are coordinating response over a large geographic area.

"It gives them an opportunity to see just how vast it is, to try to get your arms around a command and control and support that exercise over multiple days," Major Farr said.

In addition to training at the Port, exercises are also being held in Muskogee, Ponca City and Camp Gruber.

National Guard civil support teams from Kansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico and Georgia are also participating in the weeklong exercise in Muskogee and the Ponca City area.