"Back at the Gap" Major General Frank H. Smoker, Jr. (USAF, Retired) Gap’s usage increases as National Guard training site 41st in a series On October 1, 1998, the Pennsylvania Army National Guard officially assumed management of Fort Indiantown Gap as a reserve component training enclave. During a ceremony conducted September 13, 1998 at Muir Field, the U.S. Army Garrison was inactivated and the Installation Training Site, Detachment 4, State Area Command was activated. Colonel Joseph L. Laneski became the first National Guard Garrison commander. The entrance gate to the Gap was appropriately changed to read “National Guard Training Center, Fort Indiantown Gap”. It was now official! In March 1999, Major General James MacVay retired as the Adjutant General. He was succeeded by Major General William Lynch, who became the 49th Adjutant General. September 30, 1999 marked the end of the inaugural year of stewardship of Fort Indiantown Gap as a National Guard training site. Notwithstanding the challenges associated with all new organizations, this maiden year of operations saw the Gap usage increase by 15 percent from the previous year with a troop output of 490,000 mandays. This made the Gap one of the busiest National Guard training sites in the country. Fort Indiantown Gap continued to serve the training needs of its traditional heavy users including units of the 166th Regiment, the 28th Infantry Division, and the 213th Area Support Group. The customer base also was growing with usage by numerous veterans organizations, Navy SEALS, FBI and youth groups. Despite a heavy annual training schedule, the Department of Defense’s decision to utilize Fort Dix as a Kosovar refugee center brought displaced Fort Dix customers to the Gap for annual training in 1999. The training site was also able to accommodate the needs of Army Reserve units, a Marine Corps Reserve school and the 3rd Brigade from Maryland’s 29th Infantry Division. In studying after-action reports, the training site found some creative ways to expand training opportunities. An example was the opening of a new helicopter landing zone and a new artillery firing point in Area B-10 utilizing an airborne engineer unit from Fort Bragg, N.C. This endeavor allowed a unit to train for its mission and gave the training site an added resource with minimal expense. The site also enhanced operations by consolidating training, billeting and support operations in a one-stop shopping area in Area 11; clearing and stumping 260 acres for maneuver in four areas; expanding medical support during the annual training season with a seven-day-a week operational Troop Medical Clinic; fielding a fully accredited police department; reopening the car-care facility; and improving Community Club operations through a partnership with the New Cumberland Defense Depot activity. The Garrison also instituted a hunter registration program which included a mandatory safety briefing and a $10 fee to support the Gap’s conservation activities. A special location was constructed in the area where hunting was permitted to provide special facilities for use by handicapped hunters. In October 1998, the Northeast Counterdrug Training Center was established at the Gap. The NCTC is federally funded through the Department of Defense and is managed by the Pennsylvania National Guard Counterdrug Program. Its mission is to provide a no-cost center supporting the northeastern United States. The choice of Fort Indiantown Gap as a regional training site afforded many advantages. The ranges and maneuver areas required only minimum modifications or upgrades for this special type of training, negating the need for new and costly facilities. Moreover, as a result of the inactivation of the U.S. Army Garrison, existing permanent buildings became available for housing the students and for training facilities required for the NCTC mission. Another advantage was the central location of the Gap to the 19 northeastern states, providing a controlled environment for training, classrooms, conferences and planning sessions. Law-enforcement and drug-demand-reduction professionals attend at no cost, with room and board provided free of charge. The only expense to the student is the cost of transportation to the NCTC. The bulk of the classes emphasize hands-on and participant-centered training. The NCTC supports this training with a private campus, newly constructed classrooms, an urban training site, entry buildings, live fire ranges, field training sites, and firearms training simulator. Students also have access to post exchange, fitness center, swimming pool and Community Club. Many classes are exportable to remote locations throughout northeastern United States through distance learning centers. Use of the distant learning techniques further reduces the cost of training and the time away from the job and family for the students. Instructors are subject-matter experts selected from the National Guard, law enforcement and demand-reduction communities. Under the charter of the training center, professional law-enforcement officials review all courses. The academic oversight for this training center is the Division of State and Provincial Police, North Atlantic Region of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. This program proved so successful that, in 2001, the center opened a second campus at Camp Douglas, Wisconsin. On June 18, 2003 the Gap’s newest training facility literally opened with a bang -- the sound of a battering ram breaking down a solid wood door. A member of the state police’s elite Special Emergency Response Team wielded the battering ram and the team, armed with laser weapons, threw a flash bomb inside and rushed into the building in a simulated drug raid. This exercise highlighted the inauguration ceremonies of the Northeast Counterdrug Training Center’s new High Risk Entry Facility and Distance Learning Center. Speaking at the dedication, Adjutant General Lynch emphasized the role that advanced training plays in the safety of law enforcement officers. “This $1.3 million High Risk Entry Facility was designed to train officers for tactical action. Practice in this environment will simply save lives,” he said at the time. Col. Jeffrey Miller, state police commissioner, called the facility “Truly state-of-the-art”. In the past, the state police had to use abandoned buildings to practice mock raids similar to those staged in the High Risk Entry Facility, Miller said. Currently in its seventh year, over 25,000 law-enforcement officers have received this unique, specialized training. In its first year, 1,500 were trained; now, over 5,000 are trained annually. In fiscal year 2004, the center received $4.76 million in federal funds. In its current year, the Senate approved $4 million appropriation. A month ago, along with other members of the Lebanon Valley Chamber of Commerce, I attended an Eggs and Issues breakfast at the Gap. This event was sponsored by the Chamber’s Military Affairs committee in cooperation with the National Guard Garrison and included a bus tour of the installation. The tour included the High Risk Entry Facility where we received a demonstration of its many impressive features. It includes a classroom, briefing room and three mock apartments monitored by 104 cameras, 97 microphones and 98 speakers. The apartments can be configured for multiple scenarios by filling the rooms with smoke, smells and mock targets. Special pads at different locations on the floor can set off a series of challenges such as a child crying (which requires a different reaction by the officers to insure the safety of the child), mock figures of armed drug dealers can pop up when least expected, and many other interesting occurrences. A master control room filled with television monitors controls all of these happenings. It was very impressive. Also included in the building is a Distanced Learning Center teaching facility with three computer equipped classrooms where officers and teachers can interact with other classrooms at any location via computer networks and video hookup. The NCTC director is Air National Guard Brigadier General Stanley J. Jaworski of Annville. ***** Published in the Wednesday, June 1, 2005 edition of the Lebanon Daily News © 2005 Frank H. Smoker, Jr. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of the author. Go "Back at the Gap" Index