CAMP DOUGLAS, Wis. — It isn’t often that the Wisconsin National Guard shares an inside look at what training looks like for their service members. However, for the first time in over twenty years, journalists from around the state were invited to travel from Milwaukee to Volk Field in Juneau County to see what a day in the Wisconsin National Guard can look like.

The first stop, via a Blackhawk Helicopter, was on the main grounds of Volk Field to see the REACT Center, a training facility created through a partnership between the National Guard and Wisconsin Emergency Management.

The REACT Center is used by both military and civilian first responders to train for a variety of emergency situations. From vehicle extrications to simulated building collapses, they can practice it all.

While first responders often get practice with real-world situations like fires and medical emergencies, practice with rarer events like building collapses are few and far between. That’s why the center offers that important training opportunity, REACT Center Director Matt Davies said.

“If you haven’t breached a concrete panel in four years, it is going to take you a while to remember, get the muscle memory going, but we try to build that muscle memory so when it happens at 3 a.m., it comes back as a habit already,” said Davies.

The next stop on the Wisconsin National Guard training tour took us about 35 miles north of Volk Field to Hardwood Range, an area where military aircraft are able to practice shooting targets on the ground. On the day we visited, F-16s from Madison were traveling to practice.

Maj. Kalen Stoddard is Volk Field’s Director of Operational Training. Stoddard said military units from across the country practice at Hardwood because of the real-world like opportunities it provides. Lately, Madison’s F-16s have been a common sight.

“They have been doing this now since the beginning of July: two drills a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoons, and doing the same type of mission every day they are coming out here,” said Stoddard.

When it comes down to it, the purpose of the Guard's training is to keep people around the state and beyond safe.