Photo By Master Sgt. Mike Smith | Army Sgt. Maj. Kevin E. Smith is the network operations sergeant as well as the...... read more read more
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LEAVENWORTH, Kan. – The Missouri Army National Guard’s Sgt. Maj. Kevin E. Smith is the network operations manager and NCO-in-charge of the National Guard’s newest Domestic All-hazard Response Team.
With 31 years of service in the Army Guard, Smith agreed that he knows a thing or two about the Guard’s disaster response.
From deadly heat waves, floods and hurricanes – including Hurricane Katrina – Smith’s service with the 35th Infantry Division has mobilized him on state active duty many times to support his governor and governors of other states.
“The division was actually the National Guard’s [command and control] part of Hurricane Katrina [for Louisiana],” said Smith. “We had a work cell at Bell Chasse [Naval Air Station].”
This week Smith and others from the 35th ID were using their experience in an exercise that tests the Guard’s DART, which can be requested by a governor of a state who needs resources to assist civilian responders during a major disaster.
The 35th ID’s DART West is one of only two DARTs whose regions east and west of the Mississippi River encompass the Guard’s major disaster coordination for the nation. (The Pennsylvania Guard 28th ID runs DART East.)
Smith explained that the DART concept is to provide assistance to a state at the governor’s request when their internal assets are exhausted or unavailable, as well as provide assets though hurricane matrices and emergency management assistance compact agreements.
“We find those assets,” he said, explaining that the DART establishes capability-based force packages that mobilize and deploy to an affected area, to meet the identified capability gaps.
Those packages can provide Army and Air Guard capabilities, including command and control, special response teams, aviation, military police, engineer, transportation, medical, chemical and communications, among others.
Army officials pointed out why infantry divisions are qualified to run DART, in its 2010 Posture Statement: “The DART concept utilizes the unique capabilities of a division headquarters for planning and coordinating the employment of units.”
Having deployed twice with the 35th ID’s headquarters, Smith can be considered a good example of the Soldier qualities needed in DART.
Smith deployed to Multinational Division North (Eagle Base) in Bosnia as an operations NCO for the communications office there. He also deployed to Camp Bondsteel, which is the main Army base in Kosovo, and served as a first sergeant for military intelligence.
The DART Guardmembers also use their skills and experiences from their civilian occupations, he said.
Smith uses his experience and skill as a telecommunications specialist in international circuits and lines for Sprint.
On the networking side, Smith gets the teams communications systems up and working when the DART coordination cell is activated.
In this week’s exercise, the DART simulated its activation for a series of domestic disaster scenarios, including a wildfire, flood, hurricane, earthquake and terrorism.
Smith said that if a DART is ever activated to establish real-world force packages “something very bad has happened” to the nation.
“We hope we never have to use the DART,” he said. “I hope my job is always easy … I never want to go to a big disaster.”
| Date Taken: | 07.19.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 07.19.2010 09:52 |
| Story ID: | 53055 |
| Location: | LEAVENWORTH, US |
| Web Views: | 216 |
| Downloads: | 196 |
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