The Guest Speaker Program (GSP) at CGSC is intended to expand our knowledge in subjects and problem areas that we are likely to face in the next ten years or so of our careers. Ideally, it gets us to think critically about these topics. If we are lucky, the topics presented by the guest speaker might even nest with the current block of instruction in the curriculum. In this regard, I think we missed a great opportunity to nest the message of LTG(Ret) Honore’s presentation with our study in Full Spectrum Operations.
LTG(Ret) Honore spoke for about an hour, ostensibly about the coordinated efforts to respond to Hurricane Katrina. His talk was entertaining and enjoyable. Indeed, he generated more laughter from his audience than any speaker thus far. However, the take-away from his colorful presentation seemed to me to be: don’t buy waterfront property unless you plan on dealing with a natural disaster one day, stock up on MREs and water, get a weather radio, and buy some tarps. While I appreciate a good-humored talk as much as the next guy (and agree with this preparedness advice), I would have thought that given his position as the JTF Katrina Commander, LTG(Ret) Honore could have focused more on the lessons learned from the Civil Support Operations side of things. How did we respond to this disaster and how should we respond in the future?
Instead, we were provided other nuggets of insight that might only apply to a few officers in the auditorium: you can design the next smart plane, you can build the next smart home-computer to sniff and taste food, or, if you are going to be in charge of building roads and bridges, be sure to build the bridges up over the water. For those of you who see these sorts of activities in your next ten years, I hope that these additions to your kit bag will be helpful.
As for the rest of us who, I think, are likely to have to deal with planning or supporting a response to a natural disaster, our kit bag was left woefully empty. I was hoping LTG(Ret) Honore’s talk would answer some of these questions: What critical planning factors do we need to consider when dealing with local and federal agencies? What issues with command and control were the most problematic? How did you share information and intelligence from across the different agencies to create a common operating picture? The opportunity to hear directly from a former JTF commander about lessons learned from his or her operation is somewhat rare, and we missed it.
Without finding fault, I suppose I will fall back on the “Adult Education Model” taught here at CGSC and figure out for myself what the published lessons learned are and nest those with the current block of instruction. Now I will make a concerted effort to go to CALL and retrieve copies of Disaster Response: Hurricanes Katrina & Rita, IIR No. 06-11, FEB 2006 and Catastrophic Disaster Response Staff Officer’s Handbook, CALL Handbook No. 06-08, MAY 06. I am confident that these documents will provide me with useful information for my development as a field grade leader.
MAJ Christopher McGarry
US Army, AR
US Army, AR
CGSC SG19A
No comments:
Post a Comment