The Marines had been up all night in gas masks and protective suits as they continued a search and rescue for possible victims.

Hours earlier, two vehicles had likely detonated radioactive “dirty bombs” when they crashed into buildings, collapsing part of the structures that were hosting a political event.

While the Marines were real, the urban scene was part of an elaborate training exercise and the victims awaiting rescue were paid actors with stage makeup wounds. Outside of the collapsed building, more actors roleplaying as evacuated civilians headed to a makeshift base for mass decontamination.

This is just a typical day for Tim Maloney, executive vice president of operations at Guardian Centers, which helps prepare military personnel, law enforcement and first responders to handle crises in what he calls a holistic training process.

Maloney described training at Guardian Centers as “everything from saving lives in a disaster to saving lives in a dangerous environment somewhere around the world.”

On about 900 acres of property in Perry, Guardian Centers can simulate crisis situations using everything from an urban complex containing two large structural collapses and a flooded neighborhood to a functioning subway and a highway tunnel. The company often contracts to law enforcement, fire fighters, emergency medical technicians and the Department of Defense. 

Maloney’s former Marine unit, the Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF), comes to Guardian Centers annually for training. He said having CBIRF at the center feels like training his kids.

“We’re providing better training than I was able to provide the Marines when I was there,” Maloney said. “What I’m more proud of than the fact that they’re here is that we can give them something better than I ever had.”

Maloney said the unit often pre-stages national special security events like Presidential inaugurations or G20 summits as a precaution for events involving chemical, biological or radiological hazards. For the CBIRF Marines, a recent training at Guardian Centers involved a 36-hour explosive response simulation in the complex. 

“We’ve been giving them experiential learning, we’re giving them pre-real world deployment looks so that they can work through their tactics, techniques and procedures,” Maloney said. 

Marines in the simulation stay awake for the full 36 hours and wear upper level Personal Protective Equipment for chemical, biological or radiological exposure. Maj. Ron Liu, commander of the Incident Response Force, said simulations are an important aspect of CBIRF training. By going through the processes of real-world deployment, Marines can build confidence and know how they might expect to feel in high-stress situations.

“We can all wear gas masks for the next five minutes and be like, yep, I am fully gas mask trained,” Liu said. “You wear that gas mask for 12 hours at a time or even longer than that, it definitely develops that muscle memory, it definitely develops a confidence in the fact that your gas mask works.”

Liu said Guardian Centers “bend backwards” to do any type of training the unit needs. According to Liu, what makes the center unique is their resolve to bring in experts who have real life experience in the type of events CBIRF responds to. 

“Those things we’ve heard about on the news before that are so horrific, they’ve lived through it,” Liu said. 

Maloney said that as the country works through challenges, Guardian Centers help prepare trainees to come out stronger through any obstacles.

“We’re just lucky enough to be a tool that can be used in today’s age to make sure that people out there doing amazing things under challenging situations have a location that they can come and train and prepare, so that we continue to do what is expected of us as organizations that are in service to the American people,” Maloney said.

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