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HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. – Transportation assistance of much–needed healthcare supplies and PPE, care and testing for the veterans of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home and assisting in the setup of a FEMA field hospital are just some of the Massachusetts National Guard’s initiatives in response to COVID-19. To ensure that the planning, monitoring and performance of the guard’s many missions are executed smoothly, soldiers are working around the clock at the Joint Operations Center (JOC) within the Joint Force Headquarters building here.
To keep the many movements and missions coordinated, the JOC is a critical component in centralizing communications. Amongst the fast–paced environment of responding to an event such as COVID-19, the JOC serves as the center of activity. Present in the JOC are representatives from the various military entities that make up the guard force such as personnel, logistics, Task Force Yankee, and cyber support.
A soldier with the JOC explained, “It can become a little chaotic, and as this grows, I think it will become a little more. But we are constantly rotating new people in and out so everyone is getting to figure it out.”
The National Guard is working closely with its interagency partners to help win the fight against COVID-19, particularly the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.
“We get the missions from MEMA,” said a soldier working in the JOC. “We have some LNOs [liaison officers] in MEMA. We receive the mission, and we push the mission down. So, when a mission arises, we all come together to talk about each moving part. Putting soldiers up in hotels, or feeding soldiers, and how many people are on ground.”
With the importance of the JOC, extra precautions are being set in place to ensure everyone’s health and safety. This includes a precautionary step of setting up an alternative JOC should the first become compromised.
“We will be able to do operations in case the JOC itself becomes contaminated,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Darren Divris, a soldier with JFHQ. “So, we have an alternate JOC location in this building that’s being constructed with computers and the connectivity to be able to continuously do operations.”
Within the JOC, everyone sits at least one computer apart to keep a safe distance. Also, schedules are being augmented to keep people separate to further reduce the risk of contamination.
“People who man the alternate JOC and people who man this JOC are never going to cross paths,” said Divris, “and we are going to use that as a control measure. A separation between time and space.”
The soldiers are also leveraging technology to practice disciplined distancing. Briefs and other communication updates are being conducted online to keep people as separated as possible. With all the technology being used, cyber security concerns are being closely monitored by soldiers from the 126th Cyber Battalion.
“There’s the cyber effort to ensure that we are monitoring cyber activity because there has been a lot of increase in criminal elements trying to exploit the COVID-19 situation,” said Chief Warrant Officer 1 Andrew Warby, an information services technician with the 126th Cyber Battalion. “So, we are providing guidance through the LNO section, which is our liaison officers, up in the JOC. What we are doing is providing them information around issues and threats pertaining to IT infrastructure.”
As the Massachusetts National Guard continues to work with the state’s interagency partners and support the citizens of the Commonwealth to strengthen detection and response of COVID-19, the JOC will be there to coordinate and support each mission.
“We are tracking every mission that happens. We are tracking where they are going every day,” said a solider working in the JOC. “On a day–to–day, we are getting new missions, tracking the current missions and planning for the future missions.”
| Date Taken: | 04.02.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 04.04.2020 12:00 |
| Story ID: | 366607 |
| Location: | MA, US |
| Web Views: | 65 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Keeping a Coordinated Mission: How the Mass. National Guard’s Joint Operations Center Organizes Assistance, by SFC Kenneth Tucceri, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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