VDF conducts multi-state, multi-agency commo exercise

Members of the Virginia Defense Force’s Lynchburg-based 4th Regiment take part in Forward Guardian 2015, a multi-state, multi-agency communication exercise Nov. 7, 2015, in Lynchburg, Va. More than 150 VDF personnel deployed to locations across the state and installed and operated both mobile and fixed short and long range radio communication systems to link simulated mission command nodes with the Virginia National Guard's Joint Operations Center and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management as well as federal and local exercise participants. Several different state defense organization also took part in the exercise, and the VDF was able to establish communications across multiple time zones.

Maj. Gen. Timothy P. Williams, the Adjutant General of Virginia, and Command Sgt. Maj. Alan Ferris, Virginia National Guard Senior Enlisted Advisor, visited the training to receive an operations update and to thank the VDF members for volunteering their time to conduct the exercise.

Providing interoperable communications is one of the many different missions sets the VDF provides as the all-volunteer auxiliary to the Virginia National Guard.