The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina Lessons Learned (February, 2006) recommended that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) establish a National Exercise and Evaluation Program (NEEP). By extension, the NEEP designated the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) as a way to standardize exercise planning and execution across governmental levels and sectors. Not all nongovernmental organizations use HSEEP in full or even partially. However, communities, states, and various federal agencies are expected to adopt and employ its tenets. Certainly, it provides the standard that is employed in the National Exercise Program (NEP). The HSEEP provides a standardized methodology for planners to use in designing, developing, conducting, evaluating, and improving exercises and training. The HSEEP also serves as an extensive resource, replete with useful tools, templates, and examples for building exercises and determining training needs, creating training events, and assessing the merits of all related activities. As you know or are learning, training and exercises are ideally integrated, not merely linked. What is the difference between these concepts of linked and integrated ? Exercises that are linked to training may (or may not) draw directly or indirectly from training drills and events. Exercises that integrate training are considerably more dynamic, with training occurring as the exercise unfolds. This latter technique better develops critical thinking, problem-solving, leadership, and decision-making abilities as well. The following illustration should clarify this benefit: Soldiers and law enforcement personnel routinely attend weapons ranges to practice and qualify on their assigned weapons. This training helps them to maintain proficiency or improve in their individual skills. Consider an exercise that links this specific training to other training. The soldiers are completing a special obstacle course in which they run, climb rope ladders, swing over water obstacles, etc. Sometime during the course, they shoot at targets and then dismantle weapons under timed conditions and must achieve a certain score on their target hits. There is linkage to firing weapons accurately to the overall stress-inducing obstacle course. Integrating the weapons training might look like the following: Soldiers, equipped with laser-emitting weapons, and wearing special sensors on their helmets and vests, commence to move in tactical formations proceeding through wooded (or desert, jungle, etc.) environments. Another group of soldiers, also equipped with special weapons and sensors, plays the opposing force. The two groups engage in realistic combat operations requiring accurate weapons fire, plus evasive movement, simulated first aid, evacuation of casualties, and other assorted requirements. In this case, firing a weapon potentially has an offensive and defensive role, yet is one part of a whole scenario. (You might substitute law en.

1. The
Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina Lessons Learned
(February, 2006) recommended that the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) establish a National Exercise and
Evaluation Program (NEEP). By extension, the NEEP
designated the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation
Program (HSEEP) as a way to standardize exercise planning and
execution across governmental levels and sectors. Not all
nongovernmental organizations use HSEEP in full or even
partially. However, communities, states, and various federal
agencies are expected to adopt and employ its tenets. Certainly,
it provides the standard that is employed in the National
Exercise Program (NEP). The HSEEP provides a standardized
methodology for planners to use in designing, developing,
conducting, evaluating, and improving exercises and training.
The HSEEP also serves as an extensive resource, replete with
useful tools, templates, and examples for building exercises and
determining training needs, creating training events, and
assessing the merits of all related activities. As you know or are
learning, training and exercises are ideally integrated, not
merely linked. What is the difference between these concepts of
linked
and
integrated
? Exercises that are linked to training may (or may not) draw
directly or indirectly from training drills and events. Exercises
that integrate training are considerably more dynamic, with
training occurring as the exercise unfolds. This latter technique
better develops critical thinking, problem-solving, leadership,
and decision-making abilities as well.
The following illustration should clarify this benefit:
Soldiers and law enforcement personnel routinely attend
weapons ranges to practice and qualify on their assigned

2. weapons. This training helps them to maintain proficiency or
improve in their individual skills. Consider an exercise that
links this specific training to other training. The soldiers are
completing a special obstacle course in which they run, climb
rope ladders, swing over water obstacles, etc. Sometime during
the course, they shoot at targets and then dismantle weapons
under timed conditions and must achieve a certain score on their
target hits. There is linkage to firing weapons accurately to the
overall stress-inducing obstacle course.
Integrating the weapons training might look like the following:
Soldiers, equipped with laser-emitting weapons, and wearing
special sensors on their helmets and vests, commence to move
in tactical formations proceeding through wooded (or desert,
jungle, etc.) environments. Another group of soldiers, also
equipped with special weapons and sensors, plays the opposing
force. The two groups engage in realistic combat operations
requiring accurate weapons fire, plus evasive movement,
simulated first aid, evacuation of casualties, and other assorted
requirements. In this case, firing a weapon potentially has an
offensive and defensive role, yet is one part of a whole
scenario. (You might substitute law enforcement training for an
active shooter scenario, or firefighters directing the main water
supply at a fire, as other examples.)
The HSEEP describes the
preparedness cycle
extensively. As you review HSEEP’s volumes, you will read
more about this cycle in Volume 1, Chapter 4. Like most
planning cycles, the preparedness cycle includes (among other
steps) stages of planning, exercising, evaluating and improving
plans. These steps are fairly common within planning cycles for
what should be obvious reasons. Plans require a careful and
comprehensive approach. Once they are complete, they must be
exercised as thoroughly and realistically as possible. During and
after exercises, observations and lessons must be collected,
assessed, and most importantly, acted upon. These actions
should include the refinement or modification of the initial

3. plans, as necessary. Then the cycle begins again.
Too often, managers and leaders are satisfied with the initial
establishment of plans that remain untested, are never properly
validated, or do not undergo regular review and revision. Well-
designed exercises of plans can solve all of these
insufficiencies. Yet, exercises take expertise to develop, cost
money to execute, and require time to prepare for and conduct.
Again, the HSEEP is an excellent resource to aid homeland
security professionals in selecting and conducting relevant
training, and for developing appropriate and realistic exercises.
Take into consideration the following scenario:
You are still a planner with the County Office of Emergency
Management. Since your arrival, you have reviewed all of the
plans that the office maintains. The director has asked you for
your candid assessment on the county’s plans; he requests that
you select one plan as a priority for the planning team to focus
upon, and one you can also use as an illustration for how plans
should be designed, exercised, evaluated, and refined. You have
decided to choose a subject-specific plan rather than the
county’s broader emergency operations plan. You will select
your illustrative plan from those pertaining specially to
pandemic influenza preparedness, information sharing, critical
infrastructure identification and protection, or continuity of
operations. In simulating your county’s plan, consider it
potentially inadequate, having never been tested or refined, and
being at least seven years old.
For your assignment, using any program or media resource(s),
you will prepare a formal presentation (complete with extensive
notes) that educates and trains your county EM colleagues.
Complete the following steps:
Choose one of the types of plans listed above; describe what
this type of plan is intended to do in contributing to the
county’s preparedness. (You will need to research these types of
plans independently if you are unfamiliar with them.)
Communicate the status of this plan. This will require some

4. imagination as you depict a hypothetical state for it; make the
plan as strong or weak as you desire, but be clear in your
presentation and notes as to how you assessed the plan and why
you selected it for a priority for testing or revision.
Fully explain the preparedness cycle to your teammates.
Design a model (or employ an existing version) creating or
using a picture, graphic, representation, etc., to illustrate the
cycle.
Explain what capabilities and activities each stage in the cycle
promotes to contribute to the overall effectiveness of all plans.
Explain what capabilities and activities each stage in the cycle
promotes to contribute to the overall effectiveness of this
particular plan—be specific (e.g., consider how activities that
are promoted by the cycle’s stages might differ for critical
infrastructure protection vs. pandemic influenza planning).
Describe in detail at least three important facets for designing a
valid and relevant exercise.
Explain the importance of these facets for any and all planning.
Directly relate these facets to testing or improving the plan you
have reviewed.
Choose and describe at least five important stakeholders or
partners with whom county EM planners should work.
State who they are and why are they important, especially in
developing, exercising, evaluating, and refining this plan.
Make at least one of these prospective partners a private sector
representative (real or notional).
Provide recommendations for ways the county should draw
these stakeholders into contributing to the preparedness cycle’s
activities.
What incentives might the county specifically offer each partner
to elicit enthused collaboration?
What capabilities might the county expect each partner to bring
to bear?
Suggest ways in which each partner could be integrated into an
exercise for this specific plan.
Prepare final recommendations for a way ahead, focusing the

5. county on those steps to be undertaken to eventually result in a
validated plan.
All resources that are used should be appropriately cited.
MUST BE 8 PAGES
DUE BY 12PM 8/17/14
For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web
resources, and all course materials.