Courtesy Photo | Air Force Senior Airman Anthony Lester, deployed with the 474th Expeditionary Civil...... read more read more
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GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - Most 474th Expeditionary Civil Engineering Squadron personnel who deploy to U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in support of Joint Task Force Guantanamo know what their job is going to be before they arrive. However, that was not the case for Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jeanette Gooch, an emergency management craftsman from the 130th Air National Guard Air Lift Wing from Charleston, W.Va.
Gooch, who works primarily with chemical and biological agents, ended up working in two different locations dealing with emergency response actions for natural disasters and enemy attack, as well as her Camp Justice mission as the hazardous materials coordinator.
"My original career field is emergency management, we monitor and sample [chemical and biological] agents and give recommendations to the commander for personnel safety and mission continuation," Gooch explained. "As the HAZMAT coordinator, I monitor and remove all potentially dangerous hazardous materials from work areas in Camp Justice."
In addition to her duties as non-commissioned officer-in-charge of emergency management, Gooch spent six weeks working at the Intelligence Operations Facility working for the previous JTF senior enlisted advisor, Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Brian Schexnayder. There she outlined and wrote a comprehensive emergency management plan for all of the JTF which includes response and recovery actions for major accidents and natural disasters. The robust document was coordinated with several base agencies and parallels the Guantanamo destructive weather plan.
"When I was acting command chief for JTF, Tech. Sgt. Gooch was always willing to go above and beyond her assigned duties to ensure all her [mission requirements] were met and completed in a timely and professional manner," said Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Michael A. Withrow, JTF liaison for National Guard Bureau deployment-for-training teams.
Gooch earned an Army Achievement Medal for her dedication to taking a secret-rated instruction for the destructive weather plan and making it into an unclassified version in two days to disperse to all of JTF.
"I felt privileged and surprised that someone would think my work merits an Army Achievement Medal," Gooch said.
Gooch's self-motivation over her eight-year enlisted career inspired her to pursue becoming an officer in the United States Air Force. This month she received an e-mail announcing her selection to the Air Force's Officer Training School. She will attend in the early part of 2010.
"The whole process took about a year," Gooch said. "I had to take the Air Force Officers Qualifying Test and pass the flight physical, as well as go in front of two [review] boards consisting of only colonels and above. It's going to be a great growing experience."
Once Gooch leaves Guantanamo she will go back to her civilian career at the department of agriculture in West Virginia.
"I conduct a lot of plant and insect surveys," Gooch explained. "Often I bring the samples back to the lab and run tests to determine if they contain plant disease DNA."
Both her military and civilian job are alike.
"My military career encompasses sampling also, but I sample chemical and biological agents and nuclear radiation," Gooch said.
According to Gooch, her deployment to Guantanamo has been an enjoyable one, but she is happy to go back to her life as a civilian for the next few months before becoming an officer in the United States Air Force.
"I would like to thank [Air Force First Sergeant] Charlie Brown, he's been there for me through the entire deployment as well as the rest of the 474th ECES members," Gooch said. "It's been a great deployment and I'm going to miss you all.
For more information about Joint Task Force Guantanamo, visit the Web site at www.jtfgtmo.southcom.mil.
| Date Taken: | 07.24.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 07.31.2009 09:12 |
| Story ID: | 37004 |
| Location: | GUANTANAMO BAY, CU |
| Web Views: | 234 |
| Downloads: | 164 |
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