Category: Security

Source: United States Army

BOURNE, Mass. – Massachusetts National Guard Airmen and Soldiers conducted a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear task force collective training exercise at Joint Base Cape Cod, Massachusetts, May 14-17, to strengthen the state’s ability to respond to CBRN emergencies and other all-hazards incidents. The CBRN Task Force, a CBRN Enhanced Response Force Package, is trained to rapidly deploy in support of civil authorities to save lives and mitigate human suffering during domestic emergency operations.

The exercise brought together 208 Guardsmen in a simulated disaster response scenario integrating multiple mission areas, including command and control, search and extraction, mass-casualty decontamination, medical stabilization, fatality search and recovery, and incident site communications. The exercise simulated a nuclear explosion in a local area that caused radioactive material to contaminate the environment. The CBRN Task Force is trained to respond to such events, operating in 12-hour periods and sustaining operations for up to 5 days organically, with the ability to extend operations longer under certain circumstances.

“When we train independently, we tend to stay siloed and do not fully exercise interoperability, focusing only on our individual competencies,” said Lt. Col. Mark Bennett, 1st CBRN Task Force commander and deputy commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 79th Troop Command. “Without bringing all elements together, it becomes difficult to see how each piece fits as part of the whole. All six departments rely on one another equally to accomplish the mission. While each element is designed to be plug-and-play and can operate with other teams, capabilities are more limited when we are not operating as a fully integrated team.”

Soldiers from the 101st Engineer Battalion formed the search and extraction team and trained at the operations level in rope rescue, structural collapse search and rescue, and confined-space search and rescue.

Soldiers from the 272nd Chemical Company trained to conduct mass-casualty decontamination operations for ambulatory and nonambulatory patients, as well as technical decontamination for first responders. Soldiers also trained on wet and dry decontamination capabilities, equipment and personal property collection procedures, hazardous waste site establishment and maintenance and hazardous materials operations.

Airmen from Detachment 1, 102nd Medical Group, served as the emergency medicine consequence management team. The team trained to perform mass-casualty triage, provide lifesaving medical stabilization, coordinate transportation to higher levels of care, conduct radiation safety monitoring, provide respiratory protection, test potable water and monitor responder physiological conditions. The medical element and medical capabilities provide situationally dependent emergency medical triage, stabilization, treatment, tracking and regulation for patients, evacuees and support personnel. Medical personnel maintain responsibility from the point of initial contact through the established operational footprint until responsibility is transferred to civil authorities.

“The joint training environment gives us the opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences and combine our capabilities,” said Lt. Col. Eric Sabatinelli, Detachment 1, 102nd MDG commander. “We work closely with the Army, blending their skill sets with ours to accomplish the same mission. Training together strengthens our ability to operate as one team during a real-world response.”

Members of the 104th Force Support Squadron served on the fatality search and recovery team. Airmen trained on the expeditious and dignified recovery and removal of fatalities throughout the operating area, conducting search and recovery operations for human remains in contaminated environments, collecting and cataloging remains, coordinating with medical examiners and coroners, and performing hazardous materials operations.

The Joint Incident Site Communications Capability team, composed of Airmen from the 102nd Communications Squadron, trained to provide access to commercial internet, NIPRNET and SIPRNET data services, public and military telephone services, reach-back support to National Guard support services, high-frequency radio communications and dedicated wired and wireless local area networks.

“Our mission is extremely important because, while we have a capability we hope we never have to use, we train for it in case the worst day in America were to happen,” said Bennett. “That’s expressly why we’re here, and we have all of these competencies brought to bear to ensure that if that day ever comes, we have a proper response capability ready to activate and take on that mission head-on. That’s what everybody out here is here to do.”

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Source: United States Army

DRAWSKO, Poland — Soldiers with the 30th Medical Brigade conducted a rail casualty evacuation exercise during SWORD 26, May 11-15, to prepare Army medicine for the realities of large-scale combat operations across Europe.

The training, conducted under the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, tested the use of rail transportation as a casualty evacuation platform while integrating multinational medical personnel, host-nation rail systems and NATO interoperability standards.

“We need to make sure that we’re looking at multimodal transportation for casualty evacuation during large-scale combat operations,” said Col. Crystal Belew, commander of the 519th Hospital Center. “We had overwhelming success in what we called the golden hour. We had air superiority. We were able to use rotary-wing evacuation. Moving into large-scale combat operations, we need to use all forms of evacuation methods.”

The exercise reflected a shift in Army medicine’s focus from counterinsurgency operations to preparing for high-intensity conflict against near-peer adversaries, where contested airspace may limit the use of helicopters for medical evacuation.

According to Belew, Europe’s extensive rail network provides an opportunity for NATO allies to train together while testing the challenges of moving casualties across multiple countries and transportation systems.

“Training with rail assets improves NATO interoperability with our host-nation partners,” said Belew. “Europe has one of the most extensive rail networks in the world, and we get to use NATO standards, standardized agreements and transload node agreements when we’re crossing different country borders.”

The rail exercise incorporated multinational cooperation at every level, from medical treatment to transportation logistics.

“The true interoperability would be a Mexican Soldier being treated by a Polish medical provider going to a German facility,” said Belew. “Using a rail asset and training through those different means and methods really brings the interoperability piece to full success.”

In addition to the rail platform, the exercise also tested a casualty staging unit concept, an innovation modeled after systems used by NATO partners. The casualty staging unit is designed to stabilize patients before they are moved onward for additional treatment, helping reduce strain on emergency medical facilities during mass casualty events.

“This is a concept we’re experimenting with that, by doctrine, does not exist in Army medicine,” Belew said. “This is where we are stabilizing stable patients for onward evacuation.”

The training scenario focused on preparing Soldiers and medical personnel for the scale and complexity expected in future conflicts.

“Large-scale combat operations have an expectation of mass casualties and complexity that has not been seen in our generation,” said Belew. “Exercises such as SWORD 26, where we’re focused on larger scales, mass casualties and stressing the system, are training Soldiers for those real-world expectations.”

The exercise also supported the broader sustainment mission of the 21st TSC by ensuring medical forces remain prepared to care for wounded personnel during future operations.

“Army medicine sustains the warfighter,” said Belew. “This training will sustain the warfighter by preparing for large-scale combat operations and preparing our medical professionals to take care of Soldiers.”

By integrating multinational partners, testing emerging medical concepts and expanding casualty evacuation capabilities beyond traditional air evacuation, SWORD 26 demonstrated NATO’s continued commitment to readiness and interoperability across the European theater.

Source: United States Army

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Candles flickered inside Daenner Chapel as American and German community members gathered next to rows of white grave markers at Kaiserslautern Main Cemetery during the annual Kindergraves Memorial Service, May 16, 2026.

The ceremony honored 451 American infants and children buried at the historic Kindergraves memorial site, many of them born to U.S. military families stationed in Germany during the height of the Cold War.

Senior leaders from the U.S. Army 21st Theater Sustainment Command and U.S. Air Force 86th Airlift Wing joined local officials, volunteers and military families during the event, which included candle lighting, prayers and wreath-laying ceremonies.

Deputy Mayor Anja Pfeiffer said the Kindergraves memorial remains a place of remembrance, compassion and connection between Germany and the American military community.

“The Children’s Cemetery here in Kaiserslautern is such a place,” Pfeiffer said during translated remarks at the ceremony. “451 children have found their final resting place here. 451 short lives. 451 stories that could never be told.”

Pfeiffer said many American families arrived in Kaiserslautern far from home but became part of the local community over time.

“German-American friendship has shaped Kaiserslautern for decades,” she said. “Compassion knows no language and no nationality.”

Maj. Gen. Michael B. Lalor, commanding general of the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, said the memorial reflects the enduring bond between the Kaiserslautern community and American service members stationed overseas.

“Losing a child can be one of the most traumatic and painful experiences a parent ever endures,” Lalor said. “That heartache only becomes heavier if you’re doing it far from home and not surrounded by family.”

Lalor said the continued preservation of the cemetery reflects decades of compassion and partnership between the Kaiserslautern community and American military families.

“When these families left Germany, they carried the weight of leaving a piece of themselves behind on German soil,” Lalor said. “But they also knew their children would not be forgotten.”

During the ceremony, representatives from the Army, Air Force and German-American community lit memorial candles symbolizing remembrance and enduring devotion to the children buried at the cemetery.

Following the chapel service, attendees walked to the cemetery grounds for a wreath-laying ceremony.

The ceremony also recognized volunteers and organizations who continue to preserve the memorial, including the German-American Club Kaiserslautern, the Ramstein Area Chiefs Group, the Sergeant Morales Club and local students from Burg Gymnasium who help care for the cemetery grounds.

Pfeiffer said the cemetery continues to connect generations of German and American families through shared remembrance.

“Even though these children had only a short time in this world, they left their mark in the hearts of their families and also in our city,” she said. “It reminds us how precious every single life is.”

Source: United States Army

KUNGSÄNGEN, Sweden — Eighty New York Army National Guard Soldiers spent their annual training working alongside Swedish soldiers in Sweden’s sprawling forests.

Instead of spending their two weeks of annual training at Fort Drum, New York, the New York Soldiers were in Sweden as part of New York’s State Partnership Program relationship with the Swedish military.

The two-week deployment, from April 24 to May 8, allowed the New York troops to participate in exercise Northern Lights 26, known as Aurora 26 in Sweden. The team included reconnaissance Soldiers from Troop C, 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry Regiment, and military police from the 105th Military Police Company, 102nd Military Police Battalion.

New York and Sweden signed a State Partnership Program agreement in 2024, but this was the largest training exchange to date. Previously, small groups of military personnel had attended training events in each other’s countries.

For many of the Empire State Soldiers, the exercise was a series of firsts, from their first time leaving the continental United States to their first time operating under a foreign command and their first experience with a markedly different approach to reconnaissance and combat operations.

“Their (Swedish) reconnaissance assets are a mounted force, so the size of the movement and the durations are longer,” said Capt. Ryan Sheehan, Troop C’s commander. “We’re usually only out there for 24 hours, maybe 48. Having them do reconnaissance for 72-plus hours gives my Soldiers a perspective on having to equip themselves for that.”

Placed under the command of a Swedish reconnaissance company from the Guard’s Regiment, Troop C’s platoons had to overcome the unique challenges of navigating an entirely new command structure, eventually finding their footing and adapting successfully.

The differences extended into small-unit tactics. Pvt. Tyler Brundage, a Troop C infantryman from Elma, New York, noted that while U.S. doctrine favors establishing a static observation post, or OP, to monitor a target long term, Swedish reconnaissance elements prioritize continuous, fluid movement.

Brundage recalled one grueling mission that began with a six-mile ruck through thick vegetation to a highly camouflaged rally point, culminating in a stealthy nighttime movement through a residential neighborhood under cover of darkness.

“It was super cool,” he said. “We were walking, staying close to the forest, and we had to kick out onto a street, and some lady looked at us through the window. It was crazy because you’re never going to see that in America.”

Despite some small-unit tactical differences, the integration at the team level was seamless. Sgt. Matthew Jankowski, a team leader from Clifton Springs, New York, leading his first large-scale training event, credited his platoon leadership and the professionalism of the Swedish hosts for mitigating potential friction.

“We fell under Swedish command, and we had some Swedes embedded with us, but predominantly it didn’t really change the mission very much,” Jankowski said. “Whatever differences there might have been above my station were absorbed by my platoon sergeant and platoon leader.”

Jankowski described the intense training as a bond-building “crucible.”

“There were a lot of tough moments, but everyone knew there was a mission to do, and they knew what their part was,” Jankowski said. “We had an excellent Swedish soldier with us … the integration was very seamless.”

Brundage emphasized the advanced tactics and state-of-the-art technology used by the Swedish trainers to bring stark wartime realism to the training scenarios, driven by regional security concerns. He recalled his Swedish counterparts using a specialized 12-by-12-foot tarp designed to completely mask thermal signatures from overhead drone surveillance.

“When the drone pops up, and it sees a thermal signature across the whole forest, that tarp that all five of us are sleeping under… it all is the same heat signature,” Brundage explained. “They treat everything so seriously.”

For other New York Soldiers, the training extended beyond reconnaissance and infantry tactics. Spc. Myles McCoy, a military police specialist with the Buffalo-based 105th Military Police Company, spent his time in country partnering with Swedish military police on detainee and combat operations while living out of field tents.

“This is my first time out of the USA,” McCoy said. “Honestly, I love Sweden. (Northern Lights) gives us a lot of opportunity to not be so ‘cone-visioned.’ We’re not just New York state. We’re not just the U.S.”

McCoy said he and his fellow Soldiers used their time working with the Swedish Armed Forces to build rapport, learn, exchange information and make both sides better.

“Coming over to a place like Sweden shows you that there’s a world outside of our own at a much larger capacity,” he said. “There are a lot of people who want to fight for their own country and where they live, just like we do.”

Both leaders and Soldiers agreed that Northern Lights 26 underscored the program’s value, demonstrating that face-to-face engagements translate diplomatic agreements into tangible battlefield capabilities.

“It’s one thing to put it on paper and say, ‘Yeah, we’re teamed with the Swedish,’ but to actually get out here and train with them and truly team with them, I think that’s an entirely different thing,” Brundage said.

“I hope that we’ve made a good impact on them,” Jankowski added. “I hope that they’ve enjoyed us as much as we’ve enjoyed them, and that we were able to build those relationships for a long time and be invited back to training events like this.”

Related Links

The Official Website of the National Guard | NationalGuard.mil

State Partnership Program | NationalGuard.mil

The National Guard on Facebook | Facebook.com/TheNationalGuard

The National Guard on Flickr | Flickr.com/TheNationalGuard

The National Guard on Instagram | Instagram.com/us.nationalguard

The National Guard on X | X.com/USNationalGuard

The National Guard on YouTube | YouTube.com/TheNationalGuard