Tennessee National Guard, State and Local Agencies Undergo Disaster Response Exercises in Severe Flooding Simulation

Tennessee National Guard troops, local first responders, and personnel of other state entities participated in the Tennessee Maneuvers 2024 training exercises last week in 15 counties across the Volunteer State.

Tennessee Maneuvers is a series of disaster simulation training exercises that test the joint response capabilities of participating personnel. The exercises occurred in Bradley, Coffee, Davidson, Gibson, Hamilton, Hawkins, Knox, Loudon, Madison, Maury, McMinn, Rhea, Rutherford, Sullivan, and Wilson counties.

This year’s exercises involved simulated widespread flooding, which required “search and rescue operations, critical site security, communication interoperability, and infrastructure failure response.”

The exercises incorporated many units of military equipment used to respond in disaster scenarios, including a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle, which can carry up to 15 people and has high ground clearance, and an M60 Armored Vehicle Launched Bridge, which can deploy a 60-foot scissor-type bridge over obstacles.

Military aircrafts used in the exercise included UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, a C-17 Globemaster III, and a KC-135 Stratotanker.

“Disaster exercises are the best way to improve our disaster response readiness,” said Lt. Col. Dallas Clements, Tennessee National Guard’s deputy director of military support. “Our goal is to make these events as realistic and complex as possible to better train our personnel.”

Days after last week’s exercises which ran from May 15–19, troops with the Tennessee National Guard executed a rescue mission in a remote part of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

While not a flooding scenario, a flight crew from the Tennessee National Guard’s Task Force Smokey rescued a hiker who needed immediate medical assistance at Icewater Spring, more than 5,000 feet above sea level.

The flight crew aboard a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter arrived on the scene and performed a hoist rescue, lifting the hiker into the aircraft and transporting them to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.