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At Fort Polk, personnel, equipment, vehicles, aircraft, fuel, food and water were postured to respond to any impacts on the installation or deploy in support of recovery efforts elsewhere in the state. Rotational units were sheltered in hard structure buildings to ride out the impending storm. Facebook, Twitter and all-user emails were used to keep the Soldiers, Families and civilian employees of Fort Polk informed — especially the Families of the rotational Soldiers, as they may have been watching the weather on television, concerned about the safety of their Soldiers training at the Joint Readiness Training Center.
Luckily, the JRTC and Fort Polk was spared the worst of Barry, and the Louisiana Army National Guard had ample elements in place to handle the situation along the Gulf coast.
While there was no need to deploy the installation’s assets during this weather event, Barry did present a real-world opportunity to validate the crisis response procedures that were tested during a full-scale exercise in June. Mark Leslie, chief of plans and operations for the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security, said Fort Polk is always concerned about the safety of the installation, and both the exercise and this real-world event have proven that Fort Polk is capable of ensuring that safety.
“This past weekend (July 13-14), in anticipation of Hurricane Barry, the CAT was stood up to ensure the safety of the installation population to include the Soldiers, Families and civilians on and off post, and Soldiers here for rotation from Fort Bragg, North Carolina,” he said. “While Hurricane Barry was thankfully less than forecasted, the fact that the CAT stood up and did everything possible to ensure the safety of the installation and the entire community should be comforting to the residents of Fort Polk and those that live in the surrounding area.
“The CAT is comprised of specialists from every directorate and unit on Fort Polk, and they worked hard and long hours throughout the storm preparing behind the scenes, doing everything they could to ensure all were safe. I am extremely proud of all of them and I think the residents of Fort Polk should be as well — they had the community in the forefront of their minds as they performed their actions to prepare and mitigate this threat.”
Leslie said Fort Polk’s response was the result of prudent planning and teamwork from within and outside of the organization.
“We simply put into action the annual severe weather plan that we develop and brief every year. A lot of hard work goes into this plan and it is always nice to see that it was worthwhile,” said Leslie. “While we did extremely well and I think the installation was postured as best as it could be, we didn’t do this alone. Our relationships across the state, the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparation (GOHSEP), the Louisiana Army National Guard, the Lake Charles National Weather Service, the Red Cross and our partner parishes allowed us to get a ‘feel’ for the beat of the storm and response actions and prepare accordingly.”
Col. Ryan K. Roseberry, Fort Polk garrison commander, said it’s important to have trust in your team, and the actions of the staff over the weekend fostered that trust.
“We assembled quickly, we had our processes and procedures in place, we followed that to a ‘T,’ we set up good decision points for the installation commander, General (Patrick D.) Frank, and we really didn’t have any shortfalls in our response,” said Roseberry. “I felt very confident that staff members knew what they had to do, and that we as a community would be well protected with the staff in place.”
Roseberry said he was impressed with how well the team addressed three lines of effort simultaneously during the storm.
“Everything went according to plan. There are (Forces Command) requirements that we have to be ready to provide, such as Task Force Truck (vehicle assets) and Task Force Aviation (air assets), and maybe provide command and control; helping the state of Louisiana with flood and evacuation support; and at the same time supporting the 82nd Airborne with its rotation. That’s three major events and the staff was able to handle all three of them.”
As in any event, there is always room to learn and grow, said Leslie.
“We may not have done everything perfectly, but we learned a few things. Just like any unit that comes to JRTC and does an after action review after rotation, we will do one as well and review lessons learned to make our selves better,” he said.
“Our priority is to protect those that work, live and play on Fort Polk and in the surrounding parishes and keep them as safe as possible during and after a severe weather event.”
| Date Taken: | 07.19.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 07.19.2019 11:34 |
| Story ID: | 332142 |
| Location: | FORT POLK, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 39 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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