Photo By Eric Durr | New York Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Timothy Fogarty monitors the situation in the...... read more read more
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LATHAM, N.Y., – The nerve center for the 3,000 members of the New York National Guard operating across New York would look familiar to any veteran of Afghanistan or Iraq.
The Joint Operations Center, commonly known as the JOC, provides Major General Ray Shields, the Adjutant General of New York, and his leaders in the field with the information they need to make decisions.
“The JOC provides continuous 24/7 situational awareness to the Office of the Adjutant General by monitoring, collecting and analyzing data in order to develop and update the common operational picture,” explained Army Sgt. 1st Class Andres Jimenez-Uribe, the JOC controller noncommissioned-officer in charge.
Normally more than 20 Airmen, Soldiers and civilian employees cram themselves into this room, which mirrors division and brigade wartime command centers.
For the COVID-19 response, though, only five people man the room and access is strictly controlled to prevent the spread of disease.
With the outbreak of COVID-19 in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo activated the New York National Guard which first provided support to state call centers beginning March 11.
Since then, the Guard in New York has fielded more than 100,000 phone calls, established nine COVID-19 test sites and helped establish a Federal Emergency Management Agency field hospital at the Javits Convention Center in New York City with 1,000 beds, among other tasks.
Heading into April, 3,000 personnel were on mission across New York, including New York Army and Air National Guardsmen, as well as members of the New York Guard; the state defense force, and the New York Naval Militia.
All the while, the JOC ensured that the New York National Guard is tasked and employed as quickly as possible.
“The JOC monitors an active database termed ‘NY Responds’ that serves as the medium for requests for support that have been validated by the New York State Office of Emergency Management,” explained Kevin Ettrich, the civilian deputy director of operations for the New York National Guard.
“Mission requests accepted by the Joint Force Headquarters are then assigned to a Force Provider or Joint Task Force,” Ettrich said. “One of the first deployments for this operation was to send seasoned liaison officers from our staff to the New York State Office of Emergency Management, Emergency Operations Center to assist in clarification and validation of requests.”
For the New York National Guard, responding to natural disasters is routine. During Hurricane Sandy in 2012 over 4,000 New York Guardsmen respond to the storm which caused more than $19 billion in damage. Following the Sept. 11, attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 the New York National Guard had 2,500 personnel on duty.
Responding to the new coronavirus requires a totally different approach, however, Ettrich said.
“The COVID-19 response is unprecedented because the hazard is not limited to one geographic area in the state,” he said. “Although the New York City metropolitan area and surrounding counties are a major center of gravity due to their population density, nearly everyone county in New York is experiencing COVID-19 cases.”
Ettrich explained that the New York National Guard has established Joint Task Forces in every Joint Operational Area, for a total of six, and are working to get personnel across the state to be able to respond to what needs arise.
The JOC also supports the information management for an additional task force, the dual status command overseeing both National Guard and active component operations in support of New York City.
Throughout times of crisis in New York, the JOC maintains an ability to respond as quickly as possible to events as they come up.
“Our role is to respond immediately, absorb that information, process it based on our standard operating procedures and make a call,” said aid Army Capt. Justin Kupinski, the JOC battle captain.
Kupinski explained that he and his noncommissioned officers maintain the ability to make a call on the spot when anything isn’t clearly covered by standard procedures.
They will then track all current domestic operations across the state, prepare orders and maintain the bigger, operating picture for the state.
So far, the personnel involved in the COVID-19 response have maintained their positivity.
“The atmosphere here is constant,” Uribe said. “These controllers are professional and efficient. They drink from the firehose and deliver a product that betrays the chaos that they must filter to distill that ‘deliverable’ information to the end user.”
During times when the New York National Guard is not activated, the JOC operates in what is called “steady state operations,” explained Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Shawn Peno, the senior enlisted leader in the Joint Operations Directorate.
“There is at least one watch controller on duty at all times located within the JOC,” Peno said. “When an activation is announced, the J3 (joint operations) performs an analysis of the anticipated manning challenges and staffing levels to determine is sufficient manning is in place.”
The JOC is staffed to run 24 hours a day and has nearly doubled in size in the last three years, Peno said.
From personal experience, Peno has been able to compare the COVID-19 outbreak to the worst that New York has seen.
“This mission is unique,” Peno said. “With a natural disaster, such as Hurricane Sandy or Irene, we can see the cyclone approaching for days, so we have time to ramp our response staffs, issue plans, call in people and prepare.”
For natural disasters, he continued, New York has had the chance to preplan and respond.
The current crisis is more similar to the 1918 influenza pandemic, Peno said.
He read up on that event when he was the JOC “knowledge manager” and was researching past disasters to look for lessons learned for the present, Peno explained.
“During the 1918 Influenza pandemic, the National Guard was in federal service due to World War I, so the New York Guard was the response force then,” Peno said. “The missions noted in the reporting back then were patient transportation, use of armories as temporary hospitals, delivering supplies and assisting in burying the dead.”
The major difference, he said, was the fact that emergency management did not exist as we know it today, and overall response was not coordinated under one, unified command structure.
“During the 1918 event, the State Police was only 18 months old, there was not a centralized state ‘office of emergency management’ nor mutual assistance as we know it today,” Peno said.
“Today we are coordinating efforts with our state and federal partners to provide horizontally consistent response actions and missions that are new to todays Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine than (the missions) we did some 100 years ago,” he added.
This modern pandemic has seen a distinct lack of resources, though.
“As we are seeing today in New York City and elsewhere, certain critical supplies are limited and New York military force personnel are as well,” Peno said. “Part of the role of the JOC is to coordinate support with our state, and in some cases, federal partners.”
When a crisis escalates enough, federal assets can be deployed where they are needed and a state’s National Guard can be federalized. All the while, the JOC maintains the cohesive relationship between state and federal government.
“Our role then, as now, is to assist in the processing and deploying of these assets in coordination with other Joint Force Headquarters elements and our federal partners,” Peno said. “The JOC is the conduit for all these efforts.”
Messaging and information will flow into and out of the JOC, Peno explained. It is also where senior leaders will go to be updated on current efforts, he continued.
He emphasized however, that the JOC can serve these functions even when social distancing guidelines dictate that not everyone can gather in their physical space.
“As we are learning from this operation, we do not need to assemble in one room to receive and updated on current operations,” Peno said. “Remote participation is possible where the members are still informed of events and missions sets and do not need to see or be seen.”
Peno said that no matter what, the JOC as the information conduit will remain and the New York State adjutant general and leaders from the New York National Guard will be able to receive the information they need to plan, coordinate and conduct operations.
And when the operations are over, the JOC will still have a role, Peno said.
“We work with the force providers, response elements and our partners to make sure we document as much as possible,” Peno said.
How New York responded to the outbreak of COVID-19 will be documented and archived by the JOC while lessons learned will be applied to future responses, according to Peno.
But, he emphasized, that while the JOC coordinates the moving parts, it is others who deserve the credit.
“The JOC is not going to get the headlines, the responder who goes out to save lives, protect property and mitigate suffering does,” Peno said. “As they should, let me make that clear.”
| Date Taken: | 04.06.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 04.06.2020 17:03 |
| Story ID: | 366708 |
| Location: | LATHAM, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 66 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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