The Florida National Guard has been operating as a joint force headquarters for more than a decade, employing its redundant communications capabilities to weather the toughest storms and to survive manmade disasters.
In part, this was one of the lessons the state learned in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, its director of operations for military support said.
Col. William Beiswenger said, “We’re trying to get units [there are 118 in the Florida Army National Guard] down close to the population centers – now [centered] along the coast.”
He added there have been 70 activations for state service since Andrew struck communities south of Miami. The activations included a papal visit and two Super Bowls.
To better meet the state and federal missions, Florida has also embarked on a $100 million armory renovation program.
At the same time, the state with federal help has undertaken a dramatic building program at the 73,000-acre Camp Blanding Joint Training Center, with the infrastructure in place to support brigade-sized operations.
Its MOUT site can be a valuable tool in training civilian first responders as well as soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, Camp Blanding officials said.
“We’re set up to support the governor if he has to leave Tallahassee or the National Guard from St. Augustine,” Lt. Col. Ted Mauzey, deputy post commander, said.
But Florida, like the other states and territories, cannot meet every mission by itself, especially now when it is sending soldiers and airmen to Afghanistan and Iraq. That became very clear several years ago.
In 2004 and 2005, the Florida National Guard learned how the cooperative agreements among states could be especially valuable in times of domestic emergencies.
Back then more than 3,000 of its own guardsmen were deployed overseas. Nine hurricanes starting with Bonnie in 2004 and ending with Wilma in 2005 made landfall in Florida.
Lt. Col. Ron Tittle, an Air Force guardsman and the Florida guard’s director of public affairs, said, “We had up to 7,000 on state active duty then. Through the cooperative agreements, we were able to bring in additional capabilities from the other states.”
Those capabilities ranged from soldiers and airmen themselves to bulldozers, helicopters and boats.
The Florida National Guard is now in a two-year training cycle on how it would operate if Category 5 hurricane struck Miami, as well as gearing up for another overseas deployment.
Greg Moore, historian for the Florida National Guard and a retired lieutenant colonel, said in 2004, “It was our first back-to-back-to-back” experience with hurricanes and later wildfires.
Adding, “Our strength [in the Florida Army National Guard] is infantry. They hadn’t been back from Iraq for three months. They literally had the dust of Iraq on their boots.
“Many of them were in school and just getting started with classes. They had to sacrifice another semester” to meet the pressing needs of Floridians caused by the storms and fires.
At the heart of the Florida’s response to these emergencies is the constantly-manned Joint Operations Center with its banks of monitors and assigned seats to respond to the developing emergency.
Giving the state more reach is its 40-foot long diesel chassis Mobile Operations Center to “provide subject matter experts on Florida National Guard capabilities and limitations and emergency decision-making capability in the ‘Red Zone.’”
Florida also saw the need to establish a “regional emergency response node,” a specially equipped vehicle with a satellite communications system, wi-fi, land lines and two generators, for its Army National Guard battalions to use in emergencies and keep in contact with federal, state and local officials.
“All 67 counties can talk to each and they are divided into seven geographical areas of responsibility. We have a lot of redundancy in our comms. We don’t want to wait until it hits,” referring to hurricanes, Lt. Col. Michael Muzelak, Florida counterdrug program coordinator, said.
Beiswenger said, “In 20 minutes we had it up [the response node] and running during Wilma,” the last of the 2005 hurricanes to cross Florida. The state has four of them now with eight more on order.
He added that other states are looking at the mobile center and response node for their use.
There are differences in how the Army guard and Air guard respond to the state missions, Tittle said. “You are calling up units in the Army and specialists – intelligence, air engineers” on the air side.
Beiswenger said this calling up of Army units whose armories already are in population centers helps in disaster recovery and humanitarian assistance because soldiers can work points of distribution to move water, food and other supplies to the persons who need them; control logistical staging areas; and provide medical evacuation.
Like other states, the Florida National Guard also provides security through street patrols, traffic control points and curfew enforcement.
Wildfires pose a special challenge to most National Guard, Army Reserve or active duty Army units.
Moore said there are some specialties that are hard to find in the armed forces, such as trained firefighters.
“We ran,” Moore said, “an abbreviated training course in the mid 80s on how to mop up” after a fire for engineers. It is now part of the state’s training regimen, looking for smoldering hot spots and using shovels and water to keep them under control until they are finally put out.
Fires provide a good example of how the National Guard carries out its state mission.
“We’re always in support to a state agency,” Moore said.
For example, if a flu pandemic broke out, the Florida Department of Health would be the lead. “The 44th Civil Support Team is the closest [unit] to being a first responder” in a civil emergency.
It would be the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in cases of civil unrest.
The overseas deployments and activations for the hurricanes were predicted to take a toll on retaining the force, state officials said.
The Florida National Guard was anticipating a loss of up to 20 percent of its 12,000 soldiers and airmen in 2004 because of the combination of federal mission and continuing state missions.
Stop-loss had been in place before the deployment to Iraq.
“We lost around 600,” Tittle said.
In addition to offering education benefits and retention bonuses, the Florida National Guard worked from a premise that its soldiers and airmen had a commitment to serve their community, state and nation.
“You’ve got to capitalize on that,” Tittle said, and the Florida National Guard did just that.
To entice soldiers leaving active duty now, Tittle said Florida is making a commitment to them that they will be home for two years before possibly being mobilized for a one-year tour.