[Scan-DC] Joint Task Force 29

[Alan Henney]

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From: Browne, Lisa A CPT NG NG NGB
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 7:39 PM
Subject: Inauguration's over - now what? Behind the scenes with Joint
Task Force 29 - see article and link

Inauguration's over - now what? Join us to capture the behind the
scenes story with Joint Task Force 29. Almost 1,000 troops from over
15 states gathered nearby to help save lives if necessary. (see
attached article and link below for details).
http://www.belvoir.army.mil/docs/MediaEvent29th_Jan2009/all.htm

We invite you to meet troops and see our "tent city" at Fort AP Hill,
Va., Wednesday, Jan 21 before 10am. Call for media interviews and
photo opps.

Capt. Lisa Browne
Public Affairs Officer
Joint Task Force - 29
with troops from over 15 states standing by to support and protect the
public


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
POC:  Capt. Lisa Browne
Media can schedule interviews for 21 January 2008 at Fort AP Hill, Va.

Behind the scenes task force quietly supports Inauguration
 - by SFC Jack Holt, 29th Infantry Division Public Affairs, Fort
Belvoir, Va.

(FORT BELVOIR, VA – JANUARY 20, 2009) “JTF-29’s mission will be to
‘save lives now,’ if we’re called,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. John
Epperly of Operation Valiant Shepherd. Lt. Col. Epperly is the G-3
Chief Operations Officer of the 29th Infantry Div. of the Virginia
National Guard.

Being prepared to “save lives now,” is the reason Joint Task Force 29,
a collection of National Guard units from 16 states, mobilized into
forward-support positions prior to the 56th Presidential Inauguration
Jan. 20.  JTF-29 represents the latest transformation of National
Guard assets in its 372 year history.

“To ensure a safe and secure inauguration, we have worked in concert
with authorities from the National Capital Region, the governors of
Maryland and Virginia, and the Mayor of Washington, D.C. working
through Emergency Management Assistance Compacts with all the
supporting states,” said Epperly. “We’ve based it on the lessons
learned in Hurricane Katrina, when both the states of Mississippi and
Louisiana had very large percentages of their National Guard troops
deployed overseas on combat missions and help from around the region
was needed. The 38th Division of the Indiana National Guard went to
Mississippi and the 36th Division from Texas went to help in
Louisiana.”

Past regional responses to events have been ad hoc but the attacks of
9-11 and the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina pointed to the need
for a more thoughtful approach to preparing for catastrophic events.
Emergency Management Assistance Compacts leverage state, local, and
national assets in a disaster and have been around for more than ten
years. Operation Valiant Shepherd is the latest development in
planning and preparing for contingencies that might affect critical
events by providing command and control of pre-positioned assets for a
conditioned response in JTF-29’s first real world mission.

To prepare for its role as a joint task force with regional
responsibilities, the 29th Infantry Division has been actively
training for more than two years. Its exercises include participation
in Vital Guardian in 2006, Exercises Hurricane Howard and Vigilant
Guard in 2007, and staff exercises during the 29th ID’s annual
training last year. A recent overseas simulation exercise in Japan,
Yama Sakura 55, reinforced the 29th ID’s ability to assist civil
authorities and friendly forces in a contingent military mission.

POC:  Capt. Lisa Browne
Media can schedule interviews for 21 January 2008 at Fort AP Hill, Va.

During this time the 29th ID also trained and deployed troops for Task
Force Falcon as the command element to the Kosovo mission and combat
elements to support Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.

“This is our first real world mission but establishing this joint task
force is not really a ‘new’ concept,” Epperly said. “But we look at
this joint task force from a different viewpoint. 9-11 and Hurricane
Katrina gave us a new perspective on the threat assessment for the
National Capital Region. We determined that we needed a rapidly
scaleable response in the wake of a significant incident. This task
force provides us the flexibility to package our response to meet the
size of any support requirement.”

 “Ours is a stability-support role,” Epperly continued, “which means
our responsibility is to support crowd control, traffic management,
security, and humanitarian relief efforts as needed. The basics for
this type support are the same whether the mission is wartime or DSCA
(Defense Support to Civil Authorities). It’s about logistics and
people. The modular headquarters concept allows us to train for both
environments.”

“For years there has been the argument that if you were training for
war, then you couldn’t be training for a DSCA mission,” Epperly said.
“This mission is validation that you can do both.”

“You cannot replicate reality. This real world mission has a size and
a sense of urgency, a focus that cannot be replicated in training. Our
exercises have set the conditions and changed the mindset and we now
have leaders experienced in both the war time and DSCA environments in
training and the real world.”

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