Photo By Sophia Klevemann | Capt. LeeAnn Courtney and Sgt. 1st Class Michael Schmitz pose with an Iraqi soldier...... read more read more
By Spc. Sophia R. Lopez
Multi-National Division - Center
CAMP VICTORY, Iraq – When distinguished visitors come to Multi-National Division – Center, the Mountain Visitors Bureau, inside MND-C headquarters on Camp Victory, takes charge of all the coordination. This five-person team, consisting of one officer, two non-commissioned officers, a civilian and a private first class, is responsible for pulling everything together.
"We plan, coordinate and execute distinguished visitors' trips to MND-C; anyone from the Army Chief of Staff to foreign ministers of defense and special invitees of [Lt.] Gen. [Lloyd] Austin who will come to do area assessments," said Capt. LeeAnn Courtney, the MVB officer in charge, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 10th Mountain Division. "We coordinate down to the brigades, and then we coordinate when they come to visit our headquarters specifically. We also do all the division level ceremonies."
These ceremonies include transfer of authority, end of mission and provincial Iraqi control ceremonies. The MVB coordinates the invites and programs, tracks who actually will be in attendance, and sets up transportation and seating arrangements for these events. They are also responsible for sending out invitations, collecting RSVPs, coordinating with units in areas that visitors may go and checking out ceremony sites.
The MVB organizes visits for distinguished military guests, civilian advisors and agricultural experts to name a few. They get a look at who is coming into theater and when they will arrive from the visitors' log maintained by Multi-National Force – Iraq and then plan from there.
"For example, when we saw Gen. [George W.] Casey's name come up on that list, we pretty much knew we were probably going to have a piece of that visit," said Courtney, of Fort Drum, N.Y. "Most of the visits, we'll have a chunk of the itinerary."
Multi-National Corps – Iraq assigns the MVB a trip planner and keeps in contact with them to let them know what specific block of time the visitors will be in their area.
"Then, Sgt. [Michael] Schmitz or Miss [Asibi] Garner or myself take that to the command group to get guidance on what we are going to do with him for that specific block of time," she said.
"He wanted to visit troops, so we had to come up with a plan on how to facilitate that from the time he came in, to move him through [the area] and get him to meetings with the commanders," said Sgt. 1st Class Michael Schmitz, MVB non-commissioned officer in charge, HHC, 10th Mtn. Div. "You just put that together in a fluid timeline to present to the commanding general. He signs off on it. We put it in the itinerary and send it back up to Corps, so they can put our piece on their itinerary."
The MVB usually know about upcoming visitors anywhere from six weeks in advance to one-day's notice.
"There are pros and cons to a short notice," said Schmitz, of Pensacola, Fla. "When it's a short notice, you get direct guidance, and it happens just like that." Plans tend to change more during longer periods of time, he added.
"For ones that are six weeks out, you'll go through 28 versions of itineraries," said Courtney, with a laugh. "Okay, maybe not 28, but a lot."
It is important they coordinate the information flow to get the right people in on the right time.
"There are a lot of people who want to come to Iraq," said Courtney. "They have a specific agenda for what they want to do here. What our command groups does is look at the visitors that are coming and figure out what the end result of the visit is to be. The better we can do our job and let the visits run smoothly, the better it reflects on the command group. It's important that it runs correctly."
| Date Taken: | 01.12.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 01.12.2009 08:50 |
| Story ID: | 28740 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 112 |
| Downloads: | 95 |
This work, Mountain Visitors Bureau behind the scenes of VIP visits, by Sophia Klevemann, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
