EBBING AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Ark. -- 
Three Kansas Air National Guard emergency management specialists assigned to the 184th Wing’s Civil Engineer Squadron attended the Air National Guard’s Specialized Personnel and Equipment for Austere Reconnaissance and Surveillance (SPEARS) course at Fort Chaffee Maneuver Training Center near Fort Smith, Ark., March 16-24, 2024.
The SPEARS course was designed and hosted by the Arkansas Air National Guard’s 188th Wing. It prepares combat-ready emergency management (EM) specialists for operations in degraded and contested environments.
The course intends to shift the emergency management focus from a “regulations and hazards” mindset to a “quick reaction force” mentality. This is vastly different from the techniques and methods used in recent global operations, according to Tech. Sgt. Tanner Brown, EM specialist, 184th CES.
“Beforehand, [Explosive Ordnance Disposal] had already cleared the buildings and we had no worries about any hostile action, so we were able to go through things more thoroughly,” said Brown. “This course, and the way our career field is starting to lean, requires us to get in and get out, be leaner and faster, and there may be enemy contact.”
Emergency managers are currently trained and equipped to detect chemical, biological, radiation, and nuclear (CBRN) hazards and threats. Until now, they’ve focused their expertise on established military installations operated by friendly forces. The SPEARS course, however, prepares the Airmen to infiltrate compounds occupied by hostile enemy forces.
The course also teaches Airmen to use their technical skills in high-stress combat environments. Students get firsthand experience in performing tactical movements while working in small, mobile teams.
In future conflicts, small EM teams could possibly integrate with initial forces, including ground combat units from other military branches if the combatant commander sees a need for CBRN support.
“They’re trying to make it so, if we’re put with the Marines or Security Forces where they needed a CBRN expert, that we would be able to merge with them,” said Staff Sgt. Lindsay Truss, EM specialist, 184th CES. “So now we’re going to be on the same page on how to move and work cohesively.”
The first few days of the course were mostly classroom instruction that included land navigation, field equipment familiarization, tactical movements, and improvised explosive device recognition. The final three days propelled the Airmen into realistic combat scenarios to test them mentally and physically.
The 12-person class was divided into three teams for the combat scenarios. Each team assembled an equipment package that included four personnel, gear, weapons, rucks, a tent, food, and water that all had to fit onto a military-grade utility vehicle. They loaded their vehicle onto a CH-47 Chinook helicopter and were transported to insertion points at Fort Chaffee.
“They’re trying to get us out of that ‘exercise-ism’, which a lot of the trainings I’ve done have had simulated injects,” said Truss.
Truss explained that instead of simulating things like helicopter transports, rucking, infiltrating, and enemy contact, the SPEARS course required the students go through every step that they would experience during a real-world mission.
To add realism, combatants on both sides used airsoft guns for armed conflicts, which forced the students to exercise small team maneuvers and tactical movements – potentially in MOPP gear.
Additionally, the day didn’t end when the scenarios were completed. The students had to set up camp, fix meals, and sleep in the field overnight. Scenarios started around sunrise the next day, so the Airmen had to be ready to go at a moment’s notice.
Unlike other CBRN exercises where contaminated environments are simulated, the SPEARS course used chemical agents that were safe for the Airmen, but they were so similar to real threats that they were detected by CBRN equipment.
One of the main tools used by EM specialists is the Joint Chemical Agent Detector (JCAD) which detects, identifies, and alerts operators of the presence of toxic vapors.
“What we were getting on our JCADs would’ve been the actual reading we would’ve gotten if it was the real stuff,” said Brown.
If the EM specialists didn’t use their equipment correctly, and didn’t allow enough time to detect harmful agents, they wouldn’t have received accurate readings.
“I’ve been to a couple of these trainings and I’ve never seen the JCAD actually go off. This time it went off,” said Senior Airman Jeremiah Andrews, EM specialist, 184th CES. “This course definitely raised my confidence in our equipment by seeing it actually working.”
Over a three-day timespan, the teams cycled through each scenario to get experience with a wide range of situations they could face in future operations. They were given objectives that required them to ruck to a location, clear buildings, engage and/or evade enemy forces, quickly detect CBRN threats, and communicate their findings to combatant commanders.
Conditions changed quickly during the scenarios. What may have started as a low threat mission dramatically turned into close quarter fire fights. The teams had to fight their way through the chaos; they made mistakes, dropped equipment, sustained injuries, and suffered casualties.
No matter what happened, they had to overcome the challenges and work their way through the scenario. They weren’t allowed to stop and reset. The scenario wasn’t over until the mission was complete, they decontaminated themselves and their equipment, and exfiltrated the location.
“A lot of the exercises I’ve been to have [ended the exercise] after we did the mission,” said Andrews. “SPEARS taught us to see everything through to the end. It was really good training. I’d recommend that every [emergency management specialist] go through it.”