Thousands of Guardsmen Available to Governors in Isaac’s Path

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2012 – More than 33,500 National Guard personnel and nearly 100 aircraft are available to the governors of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, as Tropical Storm Isaac threatens states along the Gulf of Mexico, Defense Department officials said today.

Army Maj. Gen. Augustus L. Collins, Mississippi’s adjutant general, called about 1,500 National Guard personnel to state active duty this morning in support of emergency operations in anticipation of the storm’s potential landfall on or near the Mississippi Gulf Coast later this week. Guard soldiers and airmen will begin arriving today in coastal counties, preparing to support security operations, search and rescue, debris removal and commodity distribution, officials said.

In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal has activated 4,126 National Guard personnel to assist with evacuation and logistics.

Defense Department facilities near Isaac's projected path are taking actions to alert, prepare and secure their equipment, facility and personnel for the storm. Homestead Air Reserve Base, MacDill Air Force Base, Tyndall Air Force Base, Duke Field and Hurlburt Field in Florida, as well as Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans, La., have relocated their aircraft, or have evacuations in progress, officials said.

In a conference call with reporters today, Rick Knabb, director of the National Hurricane Center, said people should not take the storm lightly.

“In this case we have a tropical storm that we’re forecasting to become a hurricane,” he said, “and it certainly concerns me that people don’t take it seriously, because right now they see it as a tropical storm and may not believe that it’s going to strengthen.

“We cannot guarantee 100 percent how much it’s going to strengthen,” he continued. “We’re forecasting Category 1. It could end up being a little stronger than that, perhaps a 2, [or] it could end up being a little weaker than that, perhaps a tropical storm. That’s strong enough, in any of those cases, to produce problems with regard to wind and wind damage.”

A tropical storm packs winds up to 74 mph. A Category 1 hurricane has winds up to 95 mph andA Category 2 storm’s winds are in the 96 to 110 mph range. U.S. Northern Command is coordinating the Defense Department’s support to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state and local response activities.

The command has activated portions of its Region 6 Defense Coordinating Office and Defense Coordinating Element to Baton Rouge, La., to validate, plan and coordinate potential DOD support of FEMA's hurricane response operations and to facilitate DOD's support of potential life-saving and response operations, Northcom officials said in a news release.

Northcom also has deployed portions of its Region 1 DCO and DCE to Clanton, Ala., and its Region 7 DCO and DCE to Pearl, Miss., to backfill the Region 4 DCO and DCE members, who are deployed to the Florida Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee.

Additionally, the command has designated Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla., and Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., as incident support bases.

(Claudette Roulo of American Forces Press Service contributed to this report.)

‘Hurricane Hunters’ Track Isaac as Southcom, Northcom Prepare

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Aug. 23, 2012 – With Tropical Storm Isaac bearing down on the Dominican Republic and Haiti and threatening to strengthen over the eastern Caribbean, the “Hurricane Hunters” from the Air Force Reserve’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron are in the air, relaying critical data to National Weather Service forecasters in Miami.

Meanwhile, staffs at both the U.S. Southern and Northern Commands are monitoring the storm closely and ensuring they are ready to provide support to civilian authorities, including the U.S. Agency for International Development and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Three six-person crews from the 53rd WRS and their maintainers and support staff deployed to St. Croix from Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., last weekend, Air Force Lt. Col. Jon Talbot, the squadron’s chief meteorologist, told American Forces Press Service. Operating out of the international airport there, they began flying their specially equipped C-130J Hercules aircraft through the storm Aug. 21.

On a typical mission that can run up to 12 hours, the aircrews crisscross the storm in what the teams call an “alpha pattern,” he explained. Sophisticated onboard instruments and small canisters dropped by parachute to the ocean’s surface collect accurate measurements of the storm’s location and intensity.

That information is fed continuously to the National Hurricane Center via an onboard satellite link. In addition, the aircraft sends automated messages every 10 minutes, relaying barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, and other measurements.

“The reason this data is critical is because, with satellites, you can track where storms are and get a general picture, but you can’t peer into the storm and physically measure what is happening at the ocean’s surface,” Talbot said. “That is the important piece of information you need to know when it comes to providing warnings to the public. The emergency management community needs to know what is going on near the surface of the ocean, because those are the winds that are going to come ashore.”

With about six missions already under their belts during the past three days, Talbot said, the pace will pick up considerably as Isaac moves west toward the United States. “Currently, we are doing about three missions a day, but that will go up to four or five when the storm comes within 300 miles of the U.S. coastline,” he said.

The Hurricane Hunters expect to move west along with the storm, redeploying to Keesler Air Force Base to resume those missions beginning this weekend. In the event that the crews have to evacuate Keesler, Talbot said, they already have alternate operating sites lined up. “We track these things pretty closely, because if we end up having to jump from here, we still have to continue flying and providing that data while we are evacuating our own resources,” he said. “It becomes a big, tangled web, but it always works out pretty well.”

As a precaution, aircraft and ships are being moved out of the storm’s possible path and other assets are being secured, according to Southcom spokesman Army Lt. Col. Darryl Wright. Planning teams are busy running rehearsal meetings and preparing to verify personnel and resource requests, if USAID issues them, he said.

Wright emphasized that military support, if provided, would be part of a coordinated U.S. response led by civilian authorities. “We conduct close coordination and planning and provide DOD support to relief efforts upon request,” he said. “Through this close coordination, we ensure that we respond with the most efficient means available to the U.S. government.”

In terms of disaster response, Wright said efficiency is typically more important than speed in reducing suffering and saving lives.

Northcom, too, is in a monitoring mode. But with the storm expected to intensify late this weekend when it hits the Atlantic and the Florida Straits, the command deployed a defense coordinating officer and element to Puerto Rico on Aug. 20 to support FEMA, John Cornelio, Northcom’s media operations chief, told American Forces Press Service.

The element of about 20 people is assessing the situation and standing ready to provide assistance, if requested. “We have learned the value of being forward enough to cut down on the response time, if required,” Cornelio said.

With Isaac’s path still anyone’s guess, officials say it’s too soon to know whether it will hit Tampa, site of next week’s Republican National Convention. Northcom has a team deployed there to support the Secret Service during the convention, Cornelio reported.

Guard Responds to Weather Damage, Wildfires

By Army Sgt. Darron Salzer

National Guard Bureau

ARLINGTON, Va., July 2, 2012 – National Guard soldiers and airmen are responding to damage left behind by severe weather and destructive wildfires in several states across the U.S. today.

Along the East Coast and in parts of the Midwest, high temperatures and severe thunderstorms caused power outages for millions over the weekend.

More than 750 Guard members from the District of Columbia, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia responded to provide traffic control points, door-to-door health and wellness checks and debris removal.

West Virginia National Guard members have cleared more than 920 truckloads of debris from the storm and have helped with refueling of backup generators at hospitals and nursing homes, officials said.

In Florida, where heavy rains from Tropical Storm Debby lingered for several days, about 70 Florida National Guard members are continuing flood support missions. Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Air Force Maj. Gen. Emmett R. Titshaw Jr., state’s adjutant general, visited residents in the affected areas June 29.

“Talking to some of the people, it was very gratifying to hear when they told me they were rescued by the Florida National Guard,” Titshaw said. “It’s the reason we do what we do.”

In the western states, Guard members from Colorado continue to battle wildfires there that have burned more than 100,000 acres of woodlands and either destroyed or damaged personal property. National Guard reports said that as of yesterday, the High Park wildfire was 100 percent contained and the Waldo Canyon wildfire was 45 percent contained.

Guard members also are responding to wildfires in Montana, Nebraska and Wyoming, where operations include setting up checkpoints and providing UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters equipped with buckets for aerial fire support.

Dempsey Details Challenges in Visit to Nebraska Base

By Cheryl Pellerin

American Forces Press Service

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. – Likening the global security environment to strong winds such as those that come with severe weather here in the central plains, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff spoke today about challenges buffeting the nation.

Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey and his wife, Deanie, spoke with 300 service members, Defense Department civilians and family members this afternoon at this base in Omaha -- an American Indian name, the chairman noted, that means “those who go against the wind.”

“It’s a pretty challenging time, and we only get through it because of perseverance,” Dempsey said, noting that the past decade has seen the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the global terrorism threat and emerging security and economic challenges.

The chairman’s town hall meeting included a cross-section of Offutt Air Force Base, home of the 55th Wing, U.S. Strategic Command and the Air Force Weather Agency.

Stratcom is responsible for the U.S. legacy nuclear command and control mission, space operations, global strike, Defense Department information operations, global missile defense, and global command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

“Deanie and I want to compliment you on what you do for your country with a rather incredible portfolio,” the chairman said.

Dempsey talked about his focus on three major defense transitions. The first transition the chairman described involves resetting the force for different kinds of security challenges.

“We spent 10 years focused like a laser beam on counterinsurgency,” Dempsey noted. “We’ve got to still do some of that, … as well as confronting global terrorism for the foreseeable future.”

But most of the force will be resetting itself, the chairman said, “rekindling skills that maybe have been sidelined,” to get ready for the challenges expected in the second half of this decade.

The second major transition will be from a bigger budget to a smaller budget, Dempsey said.

“The question we will answer with your help is how much smaller will that budget become and still allow us to preserve the resources necessary to live up to the responsibility we have … to prevent the United States of America from being coerced in any domain. We are a global power,” the chairman said.

“I think we can figure that out with your help,” he added.

The third transition, of a military at war to a more peaceful time, may be the most challenging of all, Dempsey said.

The Defense Department must do it right, he added. “[We must] make sure that we don’t abandon someone who has served their country in time of war and toss them over the transom,” he said.

The challenge will come from trying to merge the processes the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments, as well as trying to reach out to the civilian sector and academia to help service members who, in increasing numbers, will become veterans.

“Over the last 10 years, what has kept us together is a bond of trust, probably unique in any profession at any time,” Dempsey said. Seeing these transitions through, he told the audience, will help to sustain that trust, even through uncertainties of budget or security.

The first question Dempsey took was about the nature of his service to President Barack Obama as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“One of my responsibilities … as part of the Joint Chiefs [is to] take a look at the individual issues that consume your time -- so Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Egypt, wherever it happens to be,” he explained.

“Our job is to make sure we see the whole thing in context. … We try not to look at a particular event -- for example, a ballistic missile test -- but rather to provide the context in which that event exists,” he added.

Such a test could be described in the context of a North Korea interested in becoming increasingly nuclear and having a new leader, in a region dominated by a China that had changed over 10 years and one in which the United States is assuming a larger presence.

“Our advice becomes how to address that range of issues,” Dempsey said, “but in context, so that we can shape the future regionally and globally, not narrowly.”

To a question about health care costs, the chairman said it’s a topic he wrestles with intellectually and emotionally, along with issues of personnel costs, compensation and retirement.

“It’s a big pile of money -- in fact it’s the biggest pile of money that we have in the budget, and … that manpower account is placing a greater demand on the budget overall than it ever has, and it’s not sustainable,” he explained.

“I’m not saying that to be Chicken Little,” Dempsey added. “I’m telling you the facts: that our manpower costs, at the size force that we have today, will quickly overwhelm the budget.”

The Defense Department has to figure out how to make its manpower costs more affordable, he said.

“If we fail to do that, and we are precluded [by Congress] from shedding unneeded infrastructure, … then the only place you can absorb the reduction is in operations, maintenance and training. And that is not an Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force or Coast Guard that I want to be part of,” the chairman said.

Dempsey predicted that the department probably won’t be able to balance the manpower account in the fiscal 2013 budget, which means next year the department will try again to make that happen.

“The commitment I’ll make to you is that we will do so in as equitable, fair, transparent, credible way we can," he said, "but we have to touch it."