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The Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center activated its newly established Task Force Agile Mission Support for the first time to help rapidly recover Air and Space Force installations affected by hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Formed this summer, TFAMS is the evolution of AFIMSC’s Initial Response Team, which was stood up in 2020 to provide civil engineering and security forces capabilities to assist in the recovery of installations affected by natural and manmade disasters.
TFAMS is a more robust emergency response task force that encompasses all AFIMSC capabilities, including base communications, chaplain corps, civil engineering, contracting, financial management, logistics readiness, security forces and services. Ready to deploy to an installation at a moment’s notice, the team works in tandem with reach-back support across AFIMSC’s worldwide footprint to create a centralized emergency response plan for long-term recovery.
“Our collective knowledge and expertise allow us to gain situational awareness on the ground level and communicate with commanders to determine the needs of the installation in order to quickly begin the recovery process,” said Col. Barry Nichols, division chief of AFIMSC Current Operations and TFAMs team lead.
He said the leadership team recognized the need to expand IRT to provide a holistic AFIMSC emergency response.
“These hurricanes not only tested our strength as a force but allowed us to come together to demonstrate our ability to provide comprehensive support to installations and our Airmen, Guardians and their families during a time of need,” Nichols said.
In preparation for Hurricane Helene, AFIMSC stood up its Crisis Action Team and prepared the TFAMS team to support contingency operations for impacted bases. On Sept. 27, Helene made landfall as one of the deadliest hurricanes in the U.S. causing widespread power outages, flooding, debris and facility damage at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, and MacDill AFB, Florida.
Working closely with AFIMSC Detachments 8 and 9 that support Air Combat Command and Air Mobility Command, respectively, the task force deployed specialized teams with civil engineering, financial management and contracting capabilities to both locations to conduct initial damage assessments and emergency repair work, as well as secure the necessary resources and funding needed to get the bases operational and back in the fight.
“Although the TFAMS construct is relatively new, AFIMSC’s response capabilities and the direct support we provide installations impacted by natural disasters is not,” Nichols said. “The exercises and preparations the entire team accomplished leading up to this hurricane season laid the groundwork for us to respond quickly and effectively.”
Maj. Melissa Fowler, chief of the Acquisition Law Division and TFAMS judge advocate, was the first task force member to deploy to Moody AFB. She supported the base legal office and advised the Air Force Contract Augmentation Program, or AFCAP, on meeting urgent mission requirements. AFCAP also provided reach-back capacity at Tyndall, AFB, Florida, to award a task order to augment shortfalls in manpower or materials to help the bases recover faster.
“I didn’t have a good sense of the damage or legal issues they faced until I was there,” Fowler said. “I found it very useful to be there in person to meet with the local contracting officer, base commanders and subject matter experts, and it was rewarding to build relations and be a resource for those folks on the ground.”
She helped identify and resolve legal issues related to damaged infrastructure and deconflicted AFCAP from existing contracts that could provide better pricing opportunities or help boost the local economy post storm.
Civil engineering specialized teams also helped with recovery efforts at Moody AFB. They included the Air Force Civil Engineer Center Disaster Recovery Response Team that conducted initial damage assessments, cost estimates and programming to seek Congressional supplemental funding to enact restoration of the installation while the AFCEC National Disaster Recovery team monitored the initial stages of repair.
At MacDill AFB, AFCEC deployed a specialized Civil Engineer Maintenance, Inspection, and Repair Team to help the base with aircraft arresting systems and other buried electrical systems and circuits that were submerged due to flooding.
“All of our teams worked vigorously together to assess the damage and determine the needs of both locations to get them back up and running as quickly as possible,” said Col. Robert Bartlow, AFCEC Natural Disaster Recovery Division chief. “We just started making progress with our repair work, and that’s when we got word that our hurricane response fight wasn’t over yet.”
Less than two weeks after Helene, Hurricane Milton ripped its way through Florida Oct. 9, targeting MacDill AFB for a second time, causing further damage there and minimal damage at Patrick Space Force Base, Florida. The progression of the storm forced emergency response teams to evacuate out of the hurricane zone and then respond back to MacDill to resume recovery work as soon as conditions were safe.
Dets. 8 and 9 played critical roles during both hurricanes to synchronize AFIMSC support. Det. 8 initially reported the extensive infrastructure damage at Moody to TFAMS to receive civil engineering support while Det. 9 requested support for MacDill.
“There was a lot of collaboration involved across the entire AFIMSC organization for both hurricanes from start to finish,” said Det 9 Commander Col. James Clark of the MacDill support. “Our detachment bench is small, and we are typically busy with MAJCOM operations during crisis mode, so the TFAMS support helped shorten the time between our questions and the AFIMSC response.”
The task force also provided financial management support for post-evacuation voucher processing at both bases to help reimburse impacted Airmen and families for their evacuation travel. Teams from the Financial Management Directorate deployed to both bases to augment local finance team members who were also dealing with their personal hurricane response issues.
While recovery efforts are ongoing, facility assessments at both bases are complete.
“Hurricanes Helene and Milton both placed a heavy toll on our Airmen and their families,” Nichols said. “Their resilience in protecting themselves and safeguarding our installations before the storms, and their dedication to recovery efforts afterward truly makes them the heroes. Our ability to meet their needs proved our preparations and training were effective and essential.”
| Date Taken: | 10.31.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 11.08.2024 11:42 |
| Story ID: | 484463 |
| Location: | SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 17 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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