Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Brent Powell | A group of more than 700 service members comprised of Emergency Preparedness Liaison...... read more read more
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ST. LOUIS, Missouri – America’s Army Reserve has proven itself as the most lethal, the most capable and the most ready Federal Reserve force in the history of our Nation. It’s not only stands ready to fight and win our Nation’s wars around the world, but it has also proven it is equally ready to respond to natural federal disasters on the home front that affect millions of American lives each year.
To help ensure the Reserve’s readiness edge stays razor sharp, approximately 200 Army Reserve Soldiers from the 76th Division (Operational Response) joined forces with more than 500 service members from the Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard at the U.S. Northern Command’s Joint Defense Support of Civilian Authorities (DSCA) preparedness workshop in St. Louis, Missouri March 16-21, to train, educate, share best practices and prepare for future disasters.
“The mission of this workshop is to better prepare all the key players involved in this enterprise,” said Army Reserve Col. Todd Liebeg, Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer Group Commander, 76th Div. (OR). “So when a natural or manmade disaster occurs in the United States we are able to rapidly respond as part of a unified federal force to assist local and state entities in saving lives, preventing suffering and reducing property damage.”
The group of more than 700 disaster response professionals is comprised of Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officers from 49 states across the Nation as well as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, Regional Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officers and State Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officers, as well as Civil Military Projects Officers and Defense Coordination Officers who all work hand in hand with federal agencies as well as state and local civilian authorities to provide people, communication, transportation and resources to a wide variety of disaster response operations.
Disaster response is certainly nothing new for the Army Reserve. In fact, 2017 proved to be a historic year for the service who deployed troops, equipment, supplies and resources to areas impacted by Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria as well as numerous floods, a host of wildfires in California and a variety of other disasters which in total affected more than 25 million people or eight percent of the entire American population. It was the largest Army Reserve EPLO response in history.
As 2018 rolls toward an upcoming hurricane season, it’s more important than ever that the disaster response professionals have the tools, training and knowledge to be ready to respond and that’s where the Joint workshop plays a critical role.
“The importance of this workshop is that it brings all the players in the DSCA enterprise from our joint force together to synchronize efforts moving forward,” said Liebeg. “It allows us to share best practices and lessons learned from the previous year to help ensure we are as prepared as possible to respond when called upon. Additionally we bring in subject matter experts to educate and train specific topics to give those new to the enterprise all the knowledge they need to be successful.”
This year’s workshop was spread over a five-day period allowing the Army Reserve forces to utilize the first two days to highlight and focus specifically on ensuring their 200 Soldiers were individually ready for the fight by conducting a medical Soldier Readiness Processing (SRP) event providing medical, dental and admin services to meet the needs of those in attendance.
“The SRP piece we conducted here was all about improving individual readiness to ensure our EPLOs are ready to go at a moment’s notice to execute the critical mission they do for our Army and for our Nation,” said Liebeg.
The next few days of the workshop not only provided a variety of education and lessons learned from previous disasters to the group, but it allowed the warriors the opportunity to speak face to face with their area support partners not only from within their specific service, but from other branches of the military as well to exchange ideas and best practices to utilize in the future.
“Relationships matter,” said Liebeg. “We would rather establish those relationships now before a disaster strikes and know who our resource partners are so we can reach out to them for assistance if the need arises. Having the opportunity to work directly with other branches of the military is extremely important because each branch of the service has its own unique capabilities that can be employed or deployed to meet the specific needs and challenges a disaster brings.”
One of the Soldiers who spent time building those crucial relationships in his area was Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Johnnie Berger, a state EPLO for West Virginia and a Bruceton Mills, West Virginia native, assigned to the 76th Div. (OR). “I have learned a lot here,” said Berger who works for a pharmaceutical company in his civilian job. “I’ve met with other EPLOs in my region learning what their capabilities are and what resources they have that may assist me in the future. I’ve also had the opportunity to meet other key players in my region, network with my peers, get face time with our admin staff and learn what challenges other regions have faced. This has definitely been a valuable workshop and experience.”
As the workshop winds down and the Soldiers prepare to return to their states and jobs, Liebeg wanted to ensure they know how important they are and how important the job they do is.
“In 2017 we had Army Reserve Soldiers in the fight against catastrophic disasters within 24-hours of notification doing work for the Army and for our Nation,” said Liebeg. “There are a lot of unsung heroes out here that have performed their job and performed it well. These workshops allows us to cross talk and leverage the best practices and lessons learned from those heroes so we can get even better at how we perform this critical mission as we move forward.”
| Date Taken: | 03.19.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 03.22.2018 13:12 |
| Story ID: | 270290 |
| Location: | ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, US |
| Web Views: | 117 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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