Courtesy Photo | Lt. Col. Bruce Simpson (right), the Headquarters Washington Air National Guard’s...... read more read more
As the COVID-19 virus spreads across the country, numerous local, state and federal agencies are responding. There’s a Washington Air National Guardsman part of the response who also knows from firsthand experience how seamless interagency coordination can save lives.
Lt. Col. Bruce Simpson, the Headquarters Washington Air National Guard’s Director of Force Support, wears a uniform on drill weekends, but wore personal protective equipment as a Department of Health and Human Services augmentee to the Grand Princess cruise ship quarantine on Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif., March 19-27, 2020.
As a part time HHS medicolegal investigator, Simpson is always on call to respond to disasters nationwide.
“I went to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, Hurricane Irma in Florida, and the State Route 530 Landslide near Oso, Washington,” Simpson said. He worked in his HHS capacity for the hurricanes but in his military capacity for the landslide, he added.
Switching literal and figurative hats during disasters, Simpson has built his professional network of contacts within emergency management circles and has developed a keen understanding of how to work with other agencies during disasters.
“Working around people who do crisis response, EM (Emergency Management), all that... these people do it all the time,” he said. “It’s really really valuable to have the relationships built.”
After transferring from the Air Force Reserve and starting in his current position with the WA ANG, Simpson hosted joint training events with civil and military authorities, to include mass fatality exercises and mission briefs. He knew that building these relationships before disasters happen was imperative.
“We build relationships before the fire,” he said, figuratively speaking about the fire. “There is a popular saying within emergency management communities about how, ‘You shouldn’t be exchanging business cards at the fire,’ meaning that it is important to forge strong working relationships well before disasters happen to help make interagency responses run as smoothly as possible.”
During these joint training sessions, he got to know HHS representatives and they asked him to join the National Disaster Medical System.
According to HHS, people within the NDMS support “state, local, tribal and territorial authorities following disasters and emergencies by supplementing health and medical systems and response capabilities.”
Simpson was selected as an HHS medicolegal investigator and in this role he assists the NDMS Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Teams or Disaster Medical Assistance Teams. Which one is used depends on the nature of the crisis, and in the case of the COVID-19 Grand Princess quarantine, the HHS response is a combination of both, Simpson said.
His duties included logistics and assisting mostly guests (passengers who tested negative for COVID-19 but are in quarantine) and some patients (passengers who tested positive for COVID-19) but patient interactions were kept to a minimum, he said. All the while, he became well versed in donning PPE for the protection of himself and others.
While he was on the job, it was an indefinite assignment but he watched the number of people in quarantine at Miramar decrease, he said.
“States began repatriating their citizens, which means they accepted them from federal quarantine here to finish the remainder of their two-week quarantine at home or at a local facility,” he said.
Simpson isn’t sure where he’ll go next but he’ll bring back lessons learned and new contacts to the Washington National Guard.
“Every time I've done something with HHS, I’ve been with people from around the country,” Simpson said. “Being in the EM and HHS circles is pretty good because you have a lot of SA (situational awareness)...good understanding and a lot of networking.”
| Date Taken: | 03.27.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 03.27.2020 14:23 |
| Story ID: | 366053 |
| Location: | SEATTLE, WA, US |
| Hometown: | ELLENSBURG, WA, US |
| Web Views: | 245 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Guardsman Responds to Health and Human Services Call for Help, by Lt. Col. Alyson Teeter, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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