Photo By Staff Sgt. Christopher Moore | Sgt. Polston and Spc. Miller of the Missouri National Guard, 35th Engineering Brigade,...... read more read more
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NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba – As part of their annual training, military personnel from the Missouri Air and Army National Guard provided engineer support to U. S. Army South at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Feb. 4-17.
The Missouri National Guard deployed 18 soldiers and airmen, from units in St. Louis and Fort Leonard Wood, to verify and improve engineer designs and plans for the potential housing of individuals in the event of migrant or humanitarian crisis in the region.
“We put together a good topographic survey map for the humanitarian camp areas and then a rough grading design to maximize the number of disaster victims that can be housed and minimize the amount of engineer effort required to build the facilities,” said Lt. Col. Scott Bach, commander of the 235th Construction Management Engineer Team.
According to Bach, extensive planning goes in to establishing an operational area during humanitarian relief efforts. Engineers must consider proper locations for constructing the headquarters, migrant housing, military housing, and other facilities needed during a humanitarian relief operation.
“If we don’t do our job well it would be difficult to build cohesive work areas,” said Bach, the officer in charge of the Missouri Guard team on Guantanamo Bay. “If we don’t do proper drainage design, with a good rain, people could be standing in water.”
The Missouri Guard’s role was critical to improving the engineer plans to support a contingency operation at Guantanamo Bay. The result of their analysis will allow planning teams to determine what logistical, manpower, and monetary needs will be faced during humanitarian operations.
“Our work will go forward and be part of the future plan,” said Bach.
“Chiefly our work will go to Army South and they will move ahead and have someone come through and complete the project or possibly even continue the project as a guard effort, in which we will complete the final design over time,” Bach said.
The Missouri Guard team’s mission ran concurrently with the Army South-led, U.S. Southern Command-sponsored Integrated Advance exercise.
Integrated Advance is a biennial exercise during which Army South and SOUTHCOM train to support the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State in a humanitarian crisis scenario. This year’s exercise scenario focused on mass migration in the Caribbean.
The IA exercise took place during the engineer’s annual training and allowed the team to better understand the importance of ensuring the engineer plans for migrant camp operations were correct.
“This gave us the opportunity to get out and do some things that we don’t have the amount of time to do on a normal drill weekend,” said Bach. “It’s was excellent mission for us. We had the opportunity to get out and work on a project that has some real world impact.”
| Date Taken: | 02.18.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 03.21.2013 18:51 |
| Story ID: | 103903 |
| Location: | NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, CU |
| Hometown: | FORT LEONARD WOOD, MO, US |
| Hometown: | ST. LOUIS, MO, US |
| Web Views: | 68 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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