FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas – As Hurricane Ike made landfall in southeast Texas, U.S. Army Northern Command moved their operating headquarters from the base known as the “Home of Army Medicine” to Camp Mabry, just outside of Austin.
The reason for the relocation was to be closer to the information hub called the Joint Field Office, explained Lt. Col. Dan Clark, the operations officer who was the main coordinator of the movement to the state capital.
“That’s where the decisions are made,” Clark said. “Our role is to support the state and whatever the state needs. The needs of the state are identified inside the JFO building.”
Department of Defense support is coordinated through a channel of people who are subject matter experts in emergency support functions ranging from transportation, to medical, to infrastructure, and who meet at the JFO and discuss the needs of the state.
“Let’s say, for example, they need an engineer company to bring in some bridges to bridge some washed-out roads or islands,” Clark said. “That unit will fly into a certain point and our role as the joint task force is to receive that unit, brief the unit, prepare the unit and give them their mission.”
Responding units may be from either the active or reserve component – primarily from the U.S. Army Forces Command – and, based on their capabilities, they are aware of the possibility their units will deploy to the hurricane-hit area.
The joint task force is responsible for any military units that are called upon to assist the state agencies during the collective response to the natural disaster.
“We have to be in place watching and waiting to see what needs arise,” Clark said.
A small element of the command and control node deployed separately to Beaumont, Texas, where they are acting as the Austin element’s eyes and ears. This forward unit will take control of active duty military units in the area, as well as report assessments of the disaster area. The reports will help determine which and how many more units will deploy to assist with the relief efforts.
Clark said they would be ready to bring a unit into a support role within 24 to 48 hours of the need being determined.