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The Department of Defense has stood up task forces across the United States to provide relief to state health care systems fighting COVID-19.
Task Force-Southeast, led by Ninth Air Force, is the primary DoD support organization for the Federal Emergency Management Agency response to COVID-19 in FEMA regions III and IV.
“When Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas, we were asked if we could potentially lead the JTF for relief,” said Col. Jason Jensen, Task Force-Southeast operations director. “We were asked again to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak and were selected, which was a great opportunity to demonstrate what we have been training toward.”
Ninth Air Force participated in many training exercises to stay ready to respond to various situations. Ninth Air Force service members were scheduled to participate in a major exercise before pivoting to provide support to FEMA’s fight against COVID-19. The Defense Support of Civil Authorities was a mission Ninth Air Force had been training to lead.
Ninth Air Force members needed to transition quickly from preparing for an exercise outside of the continental United States to real-world operations leading Task Force-Southeast.
“Standing up Ninth Air Force as the Southeast regional task force was a Herculean team effort,” said Senior Master Sgt. Christopher Sikora, TF-SE Communications superintendent. “On short notice, we had to prepare two facilities to conduct command and control of forces across 13 states to respond to the national COVID-19 crisis.”
TF-SE is based out of Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, but consists of service members from many different units across U.S. Northern Command as well as representatives from FEMA.
“We as Airmen, think like Airmen,” said Jensen. “A Soldier brings the different perspective and expertise that the Army has acquired regularly performing these operations in the homeland. We also bring in-state representatives to the task force so we can see the command and control operations on the federal side.”
As the response to the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, TF-SE is ready to provide much-needed relief to overworked healthcare workers and save lives.
| Date Taken: | 04.15.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 04.15.2020 21:27 |
| Story ID: | 367481 |
| Location: | SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 44 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Task Force-Southeast supports COVID-19 fight, by SSgt Benjamin Ingold, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
