USAG Bavaria evaluates emergency response during full-scale exercise

TOWER BARRACKS, Germany - U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria, in an exercise of its force protection capabilities, took part in a full-scale exercise Sept. 14 through 18, 2026 across the Tower Barracks community near Grafenwöhr, Germany.

The event involved the notional attack of small unmanned aircraft systems (drones) on people and infrastructure and the subsequent deployment of first responders with garrison leadership, personnel and partners coordinating.

Tom Janis, the garrison antiterrorism officer, planned and coordinated the exercise. Besides being an annual requirement, the exercise helps the protection team determine whether the garrison's response capabilities hold out in realistic scenarios, Janis said.

"We want to pull our plans and policies out and test them through exercise to see if we made planning assumptions that are correct," he said. "Sometimes plans fall to the wayside, they're not kept up to date and as current as they need to be. So through exercise, a lot of times you find those friction points or those gaps, and it's just a reminder that you need to do these annual updates."

Full-scale exercises focus on either natural or manmade disasters. A natural event likely to happen in Germany would be harsh winter weather or a severe summer thunderstorm. This exercise's focus was on a manmade event.

Tabletop exercises preceded the full-scale exercise, giving the garrison personnel an opportunity to validate their plans.

"They were somewhat related to it, but mostly designed to just be stepping stones in preparation of the larger, multifaceted, complex threat or hazard," Janis said. "We activate the EOC. We create a situation where maybe we have to close the gates and recall and deploy the troop diversion to guard the gates. And so those, they increase in complexity so hopefully you've walked the whole threat, threat/hazard response, and then you culminate on the 16th of September for the full-scale exercise."

Most of the action took place Sept. 16, when the emergency operations center was established. There garrison personnel worked on a common operating picture through an artificial intelligence-enabled platform, in addition to an in-conference room whiteboard and large map on the floor.

The garrison also activated its mass warning notification systems (the giant voice speaker system and ALERT! notification system).

In a real disaster, response would neither begin nor end with the garrison. Accordingly host nation first responders also took part in the exercise.

"The integration of our host nation responders included the Polizei, the fire and emergency services, or the volunteer fire department, and emergency medical services provided by the Bavarian Red Cross," said Janis. "So those were people that would come to all of our real-world incidences."

Participating community partners brought firefighting equipment, an incident command vehicle, and two ambulances.

"The working relationship we have with them is so great that normally they are always there," Janis said.

Personnel also established an Emergency Family Assistance Center. The EFAC aids in the recovery of a serious incident, providing information and resources to service members and Family members who have been affected.

"It just demonstrated one of their capabilities of grab-and-go and gets as close to the threat or hazard to support the displaced community," Janis said. "And they did it safely and in coordination with al the other stakeholders, such as the American Red Cross, who were there to provide other types of assistance."

Besides field work to secure sites of notional drone attacks, besides setting up an EFAC to help community members who were notionally affected, the garrison also put together a press conference to answer questions of reporters. During the conference, Col. Derek Drouin, USAG Bavaria commander; Maj. Kevin Linsenmeyer, director of Emergency Service; Tobias Zwicker, deputy fire chief for the garrison; and Lt. Col. Tyandre Ellis, director of Public Works, briefed the mock reporters and answered their questions. Kayla Overton, chief of Public Affairs, organized the conference.

Following the press conference, the exercise ended. The evaluators from Installation Management Command - Europe talked with the garrison team on what procedures and actions they should sustain and improve.

Further follow-on actions are set to occur over the coming months, as the garrison's Protection Branch creates and submits a corrective action plan and full-scale exercise after-action report.

Protection efforts beyond the exercise, however, continue unabated, and real disaster can occur any time. Janis said it is crucial community members stay connected in case an emergency happens.

"One of the biggest shortfalls when it comes to emergency preparedness is that people are not registering to receive information, and we depend on the ALERT! system, the mass warning notification system," he said. "It's typically used in conjunction with giant voice speaker systems for outdoor notification. But the ALERT system allows people to use their stateside phone numbers, their home emails, their German phone numbers, to receive real-time emergency notifications based on an emergent threat or a threatening condition."

USAG Bavaria community members can learn about and sign up for ALERT! by visiting the web page here (https://home.army.mil/bavaria/Alert).

During severe weather or other emergencies, community members can also follow the garrison's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/USAGBavaria/) or listen to AFN Bavaria (http://www.afneurope.net/RadioFrequencies.aspx).