Photo By Sgt. Crystal Reidy | Col. Kipling Kahler, commander of the 198th Regional Support Group, speaks with...... read more read more
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BELLEMONT, Ariz. – Nearly 300 Arizona Army National Guard soldiers conducted a Defense Support of Civil Authorities exercise at Camp Navajo July 31 - Aug. 1.
The 198th Regional Support Group and two subordinate battalions participated in the exercise by running a 24-hour operation in a tactical operation center.
DSCA is one of the missions of the Arizona National Guard that relates to the work they do for the State of Arizona such as floods, terror threats, wildfires or civil unrest.
“As national guardsmen, DSKA is a mission we need to be constantly prepared to execute,” said Col. Kipling Kahler, commander of the 198th RSG.
DSCA is the process by which U.S. military can be used to assist in missions supporting civil authorities. DSCA is the guidance of how the United States military can be requested by a federal agency and the procedures that govern the actions of the military during that time.
“In a DSCA situation, the ARNG is not in command of the mission, we support the civilian authority,” Kahler said. “We are here to aid the civil authorities’ emergency operations center.”
The civil authorities can be based at the county, state and federal level. DSKA missions have three areas of support which are to save lives, alleviate suffering and protect property.
“The major function of this exercise is practicing communication and staff planning. It’s very important that information such as tasks and purpose gets down to the lowest level,” said Kahler.
The staff reacted to emergency scenario requests from local county sheriff’s offices to aid with wildfire and flooding issues due to severe weather. The requests included assistance with road closures, evacuations of nursing homes and hospitals, and relief missions for stranded livestock.
“My policy is to make sure everyone understands during training they will be pushed to their maximum limits of endurance and capabilities to understand they can do a lot more and a lot better than they thought they could,” said Kahler.
The training was effective because we played different roles so now I have a bigger picture of what DSKA is and how important communication is in this type of mission, said Sgt. 1St. Class Ricardo Islva, operation sergeant with the 1120th transportation battalion.
“My favorite scenario was when we notionally sent liaisons to the Santa Cruz emergency operations center,” said Capt. Rachel Ziegert, personnel officer from the 158th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion. “It was interesting to see how our battalion could help a state agency and how we would work with the Department of Emergency and Military Affairs in the field to help coordinate evacuations for potential flood victims.”
At the end of the exercise, the soldiers had a better understanding of what they need to do in a DSKA mission, said Islva.
“The training was very positive and I believe synergy was achieved by the staff, said Kahler. “I believe we are ready and prepared at all levels to accomplish any type of DSKA mission we are requested to do.”
| Date Taken: | 08.01.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 08.06.2015 01:05 |
| Story ID: | 172296 |
| Location: | PHEONIX, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 101 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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