Photo By Vince Little | The Joint Enabling Capabilities Command hosted a Mission Readiness Exercise at Norfolk...... read more read more
Norfolk Naval Base, Va - Planning isn’t exactly the easiest of jobs to capture accurately on camera nor is it the most eye-catching of job titles, and yet Joint Task Force Civil Support (JTF-CS) and the Joint Enabling Capabilities Command (JECC) make it look good. Carrying out the mission in the field is only part of what the military does. Some have, instead, made a career out of working behind the scenes to plan for the future. They look at current events and then plan accordingly, using trends, statistics and numbers to prepare for what might happen.
JTF-CS plans and prepares for a chemical, biological, radiological or neurological (CBRN) event. Using possible real-world scenarios, the JTF-CS team constantly tests their plans to ensure they have the best options in place to assist their fellow Americans in the event of a CBRN incident.
The JECC, on the other hand, cultivates their skills as planners. They step into situations where the organization has the experience on the ground but needs some tightening with their forward thinking plans.
That’s where a JECC Mission Readiness Exercise (MRX) held at Norfolk Naval Base comes in and is just one of several opportunities for JTF-CS and the JECC to work together.
“This MRX is the capstone training event we offer that provides real world scenarios with mission partners in order to train the JECC members through the joint operations planning process,” explained Air Force Lt. Col. Joe Vanoni, the Training, Readiness and Exercise Division Chief with the JECC. They do these types of exercises 4 times a year spread across different services and units, all with different missions.
In this scenario, the JECC has planned out a notional CBRN event and then put together three different planning teams to work through the command and control, authority and logistics to provide the mission partners multiple courses of action with well-thought out avenues to utilize if a real-world response were required.
The MRX brings in not only the JECC planners but also subject matter experts (SMEs) from the US Transportation Command, JTF-CS, Joint Task Force National Capital Region, Joint Combat Camera, FEMA and Joint Contingency Acquisition Support Office. With JTF-CS sending in 11 members to act as planners and SMEs, they are the largest outside mission partners at a JECC MRX.
“The collaboration of both headquarters provides positive results for the high priority mission at the nation’s capital,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Chris Kurinec, a planner with JTF-CS. “The National Capital Region is the number one focus area of JTF-CS so this mission fits perfectly into what we do.” Kurinec was invited by the JECC to be a CBRN expert for this MRX.
“Collaboration with our mission partners allows us two things,” explained Vanoni. “It builds personal and professional relationships with organizations we could one day be called on to support. It also increases the JECC planner’s knowledge of potential problem sets.”
Although this is the first time JTF-CS has acted as SME for a JECC MRX, this isn’t the first time the JECC and JTF-CS have worked together.
JTF-CS holds exercises twice a year, sometimes more, calling in their more than 5,200 troops to train and to ensure that they will be ready any time they are called up for a CBRN event. JTF-CS often relies on the invaluable help of the JECC members for their expertise in operational planning to work out the best course of action for logistics and intelligence.
And then there are the joint missions.
“We are constantly working in concert to support US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM),” said Army Maj. Dan Sukman, a joint planner with the JECC. In 2016, Sukman joined a team that included members from JTF-CS to form the Joint Task Force-X staff that supported Exercise Ardent Sentry, a USNORTHCOM exercise that involved planning out a response to an earthquake in a subduction zone.
“I was the future plans officer. That means I helped develop plans that looked past the 72 – 96 hour time frame. We were looking for aftershocks that might happen and what we would need there.”
Sukman believes those exercises that bring different joint forces together are important.
“By working together, we are building up relations and a network of contacts that if something does happen, we can respond faster and more effectively to save lives.”
Whether it’s collaborating on a planning exercise or joining forces to help solve real-world problems, it’s certain that together, the JECC and JTF-CS will only get better from here.
| Date Taken: | 09.22.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 09.22.2016 15:22 |
| Story ID: | 210296 |
| Location: | NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 328 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Planning for a Safer World, by Tamara Cario, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
