Why a huge military helicopter was flying over Butler County this morning

Residents in the Ross Twp. area may have heard the rumble of a large military helicopter this morning

The helicopter is part of a massive training event in which the Butler County Emergency Management Agency is participating.

The BCEMA and Ohio-Butler County Incident Management Team were asked to assist in managing the world’s largest combined search and rescue exercise that has been going on this week at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Indiana.

EMA Director Matt Haverkos and his team was in Indiana on Tuesday, Wednesday and today to help load personnel and supplies onto the Chinook helicopter that landed at the Ross Twp. fire station this morning on Ross Millville Road.

The purpose of Operation Unified Response 2019 is to evaluate and improve the community’s response to a “no-notice” earthquake, identify gaps in resources, and implement a coordinated recovery strategy that prioritizes resources required for response,” according to a release from Monroe Fire Chief John Centers, operations chief of the Butler County Incident Management Team.

“The high level of collaboration and partnerships achieved within the scale of this incident will allow participating agencies to better prepare, and respond to actual incidents nationwide,” he wrote. “This would include the tornadic disaster that just occurred in the state of Ohio, which Butler County EMA and the State of Ohio- Butler County Incident Management Team responded to in multiple counties.”

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