First respondersNational Guard and first responders hold dirty bomb drill in upstate NY

In a unique training exercise, hundreds of New York National Guardsmen and local emergency personnel responded to a simulated dirty bomb explosion in downtown Kingston in upstate New York over the weekend.

With “bloody” bodies lying everywhere, members of the National Guard worked with first responders to decontaminate the area while treating the injured.

For Operation Checkmate, the backdrop of the exercise was a partially demolished hotel in an urban area adding realism and giving participants a rare learning experience. The New York National Guard holds at least two of these major response exercises each year, but rarely ever in an urban environment or with actually demolished buildings.

Richard Salzmann, the Kingston fire chief, said the exercise was “the biggest drill of its kind, probably in this part of the state,” that he had seen in his thirty-six year career.

More than 600 rescue personnel from dozens of civilian and military agencies participated in the drill.

As local volunteers covered in fake blood writhed in pain, local and state police secured several blocks while a special unit of the National Guard assessed the extent of radioactive contamination. Additional National Guard units worked to decontaminate the area, while emergency medical personnel and firemen rushed to assist the injured.

Egidio Tinti, Kingston’s police chief, said responding to real dirty bomb incident would require the full resources and efforts of all local agencies as well as the National Guard.

“Radiation in a community environment would require all the resources we could mobilize,” Tinti said.