TORUN, Poland -- Stop me if you've heard this one before. A robot walks into a U.S. Army Garrison Poland Morale Welfare and Recreation tent...
You haven't?
Well there's no way you have, because that's what just happened, Feb. 29 at Forward Operating Station Torun, during the installation's first emergency services exercise. An exercise that began with a suspicious package and ended with a unified response.
"Our role as the garrison is to get everyone working together -- Polish and American," said Dominic Lowe, the civilian site lead for FOS Torun and one of the coordinators for the exercise.
Located about 2.5 hours northeast of the garrison headquarters in Poznan, FOS Torun, is one the garrison's more austere sites. That means cooperation with host nation services is more important than ever. "We want to be in position where someone can dial 112 (The Polish emergency number), and everyone would know where to get to and what to do," Lowe said.
Lowe said the exercise, which has been in the works for about seven months, brought together the 222nd Military Police Company, Torun Fire Department, and 379th Chemical Company.
The Chicago-based 379th provided the robots and a pair of Polish-American Soldiers who acted as ad-hoc translators.
"For us this was something new, -- we haven't yet had the opportunity to work with the Americans," said Bartosz Kubiak, the Deputy Fire Chief for Torun Fire Battalion 2.
The exercise began in FOS Torun's multipurpose MWR/Barbershop/AAFES tent. There a suspicious package with vials was found, which prompted the MPs to create a cordon around the building, and for the garrison to contact host nation support.
Soon the 379th Chemical arrived on scene with a pair of robots, and within minutes a chemical response team from the Torun Fire Department. While the American robots investigated the site, the Polish firefighters donned their chemical protective suits and air tanks.
A malfunction in the robots, brought in the Polish team, and within minutes the site was cleared.
Kubiak was excited for future partnership with the FOS Torun.
"Today was a great first step, if something were to happen in the future, we know we'll be better prepared for it," he said.
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