Always ready, always there

The Army National Guard stands ready to respond to emergency situations at the command of state or federal officials, depending on the situation. With increased deployments as a result of the war in Iraq, some groups are questioning the Guard’s ability to respond. But the National Guard says its members are ...

IT’S THE motto of the Army National Guard — Always ready. Always there. Its members have been called up to fight in the Iraq war and for various natural disasters throughout the country in recent years.

But whether the National Guard can live up to their motto has been brought into question recently by various groups including the Americans Against Escalation in Iraq. They say the National Guard wouldn’t be able to properly respond to a natural disaster due to deployments for the war.

North Carolina National Guard spokesman Maj. Matt Handley said that’s not the case. Soldiers are in constant preparation, taking deployments into consideration when responding to a natural disaster in the area, he said.

The state group, made up of 11,500 men and women with the Army and Air National Guard, is preparing for hurricane season. Around 950 of those are currently deployed, while 97 percent of the N.C. National Guard has deployed at some point since 9/11.

“At the end of a hurricane season we look back at the previous year and see how we responded through an afteraction review,” Handley said. “Then in January and February, we begin to look at the upcoming hurricane season.”

The Guard responds through the state emergency management system and coordinates with other southeastern states in preparation.

“We see how they’re sitting with deployments and who’s got what type of units deployed,” Handley said. “We see how that’s going to impact individual units to respond and if we’ll need to go outside of the state to respond.”

Local units like the Jacksonville armory regulary report to the state National Guard how many soldiers are deployed and whether they can meet their requirements for responding to various natural disasters.

“If we have units that deploy we always cover down on it,” said Lt. Col. Jamie Mosteller, director of operations and military support. “If we can’t, other states and governors will help us or our defense coordinating officer can get a federal response from Fort Bragg or Camp Lejeune if needed.”

The Guard is preparing for a tabletop rehearsal with more than 30 soldiers in leadership positions from units across the state. They use past experience to prepare scenarios and allow each unit to better educate themselves on their area of coverage.

If a large hurricane were to hit Onslow County, the Guard would likely deploy soldiers from the western part of the state, Handley said.

“Our soldiers and guardsmen in the Jacksonville area don’t need to be responding to us, they need to get their families out of there,” he said.

Once the Guard is made aware of a storm that is coming toward the East Coast, they begin preparing five to six days before it hits.

“We watch the storm closely and get an idea of what the storm is going to do,” Handley said. “We then begin to preposition men and equipment in National Guard facilities forward waiting for the storm to come through.”

Facilitators of the response must get soldiers and equipment ready and put them in place as close to the predicted impact area as possible, but far enough away to stay safe.

“We tie in with the county emergency management through task force liaisons in those counties,” Handley said. “If the local law enforcement says they need some mobility, then there’s a certain amount of equipment that is available locally. If it’s something bigger than the county can handle, it comes back to the state.”

The N.C. National Guard prepares for storms using a “force packaging model,” which is designed in response to civilian emergency needs. Various packages are in place to respond to disaster needs, which helps them track when soldiers or supplies run low.

“Basically if it’s a Category 3 storm or lower, then we have the personnel and equipment to handle it,” Handley said. “If it’s anything bigger than that we’re going to be requesting assistance from other states. We build into these contingency plans when we get to that point for how that works and how to integrate those people into the process.”

Around 900 N.C. guardsmen deployed to Louisiana in response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he said.

“I think you can just see by us being a partner in the state emergency response team that what we do is very important, but it’s not the sole response,” Mosteller said. “There’s a lot of counties and cities out there — we’re just a part of the team.”

Contact staff writer Chrissy Vick at cvick@freedomenc. com or by calling 353-1171, ext. 8466.