State Guard members receive DAART training

Photo By Maj. Sara Morris | State Guard members receive DAART training with the 194th Air Intelligence Squadron and Joint Operations Center personnel at Camp Murray to enhance their abilities to respond to state emergencies and sync capabilities with the National Guard force.  

CAMP MURRAY, WA, UNITED STATES

02.21.2019

Story by Sara Morris 

Joint Force Headquarters - Washington National Guard

During major disasters, the Washington Emergency Management Division is working directly with the counties, cities and tribes to coordinate resources and the Washington National Guard is working with first responders to assist citizens in need. But there is another branch of the Washington Military Department that also works hard during state emergencies -- the Washington State Guard.

Recently, state Guardsmen were at Camp Murray and received training on DAART, Domestic Operations Awareness and Assessment Response Tool to enhance communication abilities during a response.

“The training helps the Washington State Guard provide greater utility to both the Army and Air National Guard in support of domestic events and emergencies,” said Capt. Russ McRee, Washington State Guard.

The training with the 194th Air Intelligence Squadron and Joint Operations Center personnel helped Washington State Guard DAART team soldiers expand on their data acquisition expertise with the ability to add, manage and share data in the DAART environment.

“The training received is invaluable to Washing State Guard soldiers,” said Sgt. First Class Joshua Keliikoa, Washington State Guard. “It provides us opportunities to understand the available platforms within the military and our private sector counterparts.”

DAART is a web-based, geospatial intelligence, capability designed, developed and operationalized by the National Guard Bureau Joint Intelligence Directorate in partnership with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command. DAART provides both civil and military first responders the capability to process and share enhanced situational awareness information.

The tool provides imagery, video, geospatial information and more to teams at the federal, state and local levels. It offers collaboration within the interagency incident awareness and assessment community supporting National Guard civil missions across the U.S.

Receiving training like DAART keeps the Washing State Guard members relevant as a force to the citizens of the state. Helping them to remain ready and poised to provide Incident Awareness and Assessment of affected areas.

“Being able to provide a usable product to Federal, State, Local, and Tribal communities is valuable,” said Keliikoa. “Those entities now have the ability to be informed, make a more collaborative based decision of the affected area while allowing a safer operating environment for responders to work around.”

• Date Taken: 02.21.2019
• Date Posted: 02.21.2019 09:21
• Story ID: 311404
• Location: CAMP MURRAY, WA, US
• Hometown: CAMP MURRAY, WA, US