New York Guardsmen participate in Israeli army exercise
Col. David Martinez, right, of the New York National Guard, discusses chemical protection equipment and employment tactics with Dr. (Col.) Gady Sadovsky from the Israel Defense Forces' Home Front Command and a member of the Home Front Command reserve chemical response battalion. Martinez, the director of domestic operations for the New York National Guard's Joint Force Headquarters, was in Israel for Shared Future 2010, the bilateral military support to civil authorities training exercise between the National Guard and the Israeli Home Front Command. (Photo by Lt. Col. Richard Goldenberg, New York National Guard)
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hi-res photoBEERSHEBA, Israel, (8/3/10) -- Two New York Army National Guard officers learned that despite different languages, the concerns of Israeli Army civil defense soldiers and National Guardsmen, who respond to domestic emergencies, are similar.
Col. David Martinez, the director of domestic operations for the New York National Guard, and Lt. Col. Richard Goldenberg, a public affairs officer for the 42nd Infantry Division, represented the Empire State in Shared Future 2010, the bilateral military support to civil authorities training exercise between the National Guard Bureau and the Israeli Home Front Command.
Shared Future participants exchanged best practices, techniques and procedures for the military support to emergency responders for both conventional and weapons of mass destruction incidents from July 26-29.
The Home Front Command brought the National Guard participants to Beersheba over two days to observe a reserve training exercise to employ urban search and rescue battalions and the chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high explosive response battalion.
The Beersheba exercise scenario centered on a missile attack delivering a chemical munition near an apartment complex. Home Front Command regularly training exercises The National Guard observers also met with emergency preparedness leaders from Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba to learn about methods to prepare hospital staff to treat the casualties of a chemical weapon attack.
Soroka, a university hospital with a geographic reach from Ashkelon to Eilat, provides medical care for a significant portion of the Negev district in southern Israel.
In a meeting with Ruvik Danilovich, the mayor of Beersheba, the discussion was about the important partnership between municipal leaders, emergency responders and the Israeli military during a crisis.
Danilovich was newly elected when Beersheba came under rocket attack in late December 2008 during the Israeli operation Cast Lead in Gaza. He discussed the heavy weight of government leadership when he ordered the closing of schools for the day following the impact of a rocket on a empty kindergarten classroom on Dec. 30.
About 40 Qassam rockets and Grad missiles were fired at the western Negev communities that day.
The training exercise included representatives from various state Joint Force Headquarters, National Guard Bureau staff and the Department of Homeland Security. Two other representatives from the New York National Guard attended the International Consequence Management Seminar in Tel Aviv on Aug. 1-4.
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