Skilled Support Personnel play an integral role in any disaster response operation. However, several reports have found that our nation's SSP are inadequately trained to respond to incidents involving Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). These reports put forth dozens of recommendations for how to improve SSP training to prepare them for WMD events. One of the key recommendations was that SSP be cross-trained in the roles of first responders. Cross-training simultaneously achieves two goals: SSP will receive the same level of response training that first responders do, and SSP will be better able to effectively assist first responders during a response because they will have a better understanding of what first responders do. A report by the Federation of American Scientists found that new advanced training technologies are needed to meet the demands of WMD response training. To fill the training needs of the SSP, CHI Systems, Inc., The Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), and The National Center for Biodefense at George Mason University will rapidly develop and deploy VIGILANCE, a SCORM-compliant GB training application that will harness the power of existing gaming technologies to create a compelling and engaging training experience which will be both easy to distribute and update. When completed, VIGILANCE will provide cross-training to SSP by allowing them to play the role of a first responder who is responding to a WMD incident. VIGILANCE will have a highly realistic 3-D virtual world where SSP will act as first responders and work through scenarios based on the most current training requirements for first responders.
