Photo By Cpl. Ricardo Davila | NEW ORLEANS – U.S. Air Force Gen. Lori Robinson (left), commander of U.S. Northern...... read more read more
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Just days after the city of New Orleans experienced another devastating storm, the top commander for the U.S.’ aerospace defense and emergency response commands made a special trip to the region to meet with leaders from all levels of federal, state, and local government, Feb. 8-9. The trip was planned before the storm materialized but the damage it caused illustrated the need for coordination between military and civilian agencies.
Gen. Lori J. Robinson, commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command and United States Northern Command, visited the Crescent City to meet with senior leaders from Marine Forces Reserve and Marine Forces North, and key decision makers from the New Orleans Emergency Operations Center, the FBI, U.S. Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers. This is the first time Robinson has visited MARFORNORTH and the City of New Orleans as the USNORTHCOM commander. The purpose of the visit was to enhance the mutual understanding of the USNORTHCOM and MARFORNORTH mission and priorities, obtain Gen. Robinson’s specific guidance on future expectations, provide lessons learned from historical emergency response actions in and around New Orleans, and to strengthen relationships with key local, state, and federal interagency mission partners in the greater New Orleans area.
During her visit, Robinson received several high-level briefings on the state of emergency preparedness and response in the New Orleans region and lessons learned from past natural disasters and crises in the area.
The visit came at an interesting time: immediately following an EF3 tornado that has been categorized as the strongest tornado to ever touch down in New Orleans. The locally-based Army Corps of Engineers went to work alongside local civilian agencies to assess and repair critical infrastructure.
An aerial orientation of the tornado-stricken area afforded the general a firsthand look at how federal agencies and local civilian agencies work together during a natural disaster and why fostering those connections is so critical.
“What is important is relationships,” Robinson stated during a town hall meeting of senior officers and staff commissioned officers. ”It is important to our mission that we tighten and maintain those relationships [between DoD and local authorities].”
Robinson also explained that one of her top priorities as commander of NORTHCOM is to respond to crises in response to mission partners capabilities and to strengthen regional partnerships. Although Robinson has two different mission sets between the commands of which are in her charge, “the common purpose is homeland defense,” she stated.
While both of her commands support homeland defense, their missions greatly differ. NORAD conducts aerospace warning, aerospace control, and maritime warning in the defense of North America, and USNORTHCOM partners to conduct homeland defense, civil support, and security cooperation to defend and secure the United States and its interests.
Maj. Bradley Hausmann, assistant chief of staff for MARFORNORTH logistics operations was highly involved in the planning of the commander’s visit and felt it was a success. “The visit was extremely successful in that it strengthened relationships with key local, state, and federal interagency mission partners in the greater New Orleans area,” he said. “It was also highly beneficial for Gen. Robinson to see the dynamics of MARFORRES’s support to MARFORNORTH’s mission sets, and vice versa.”
Hausmann also explained how MARFORNORTH, although small in personnel, is more than capable and ready to carry out any mission given by higher headquarters.
“We are the smallest MARFOR service component staff in the Marine Corps but we fight well above our weight class. We are exclusively dedicated, without distractions, to the missions given to commander, MARFORNORTH, in deliberately planned or crisis environments.” he explained.
As MARFORNORTH gears up for hurricane season which begins June 1, and other possible crises in region, the command is poised to meet and overcome the challenges they may face alongside their partners in emergency response, and carry out the mission with clear direction from the NORTHCOM commander.
| Date Taken: | 02.10.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 02.14.2017 15:18 |
| Story ID: | 223513 |
| Location: | NEW ORLEANS, LA, US |
| Web Views: | 221 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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