Agencies/Major Commands | Army War College Foundation, INC.

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Agencies/Major Commands

Jesse Levinson, DDE ‘16

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At the U.S. Consulate in Rio de Janeiro, our role during the COVID-19 pandemic has been focused on assisting U.S. citizens, identifying opportunities to assist our Brazilian partners, and helping to provide our own government with a timely and accurate picture of the public health situation in Brazil. My consular colleagues have helped repatriate Americans looking to return home and our public affairs team has been making sure that we confront misinformation about the epidemic, while providing an accurate picture of what the U.S. Government is doing to assist our Brazilian partners. Diplomacy is, by definition, an activity that usually involves significant people-to-people contact, so we have had to learn how to do many of these tasks in new ways, meeting virtually and employing new information technology systems. The adaptability, resilience, and openness to innovation of so many of our colleagues has helped keep Department of State operations going during this crisis.

Mr. Jesse S. Levinson
Distance Class of 2016
Political and Economic Section Chief
Department of State
U.S. Consulate General Rio de Janeiro

Steve Woods, RES ‘04

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I am the Chief Supply Chain Officer of the Northern Arizona Veterans Administration (VA) Health Care System, in Prescott, Arizona. My team and I are responsible to ensure our clinicians have the equipment and supplies they need to provide effective Health Care for America’s Veterans at our medical facilities across Northern Arizona. With COVID-19, we’ve been a little busy lately…

COL (Ret) Steven G. Woods
Resident Class of 2004

Todd Semonite, RES ‘99

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Todd Semonite, RES ‘99

As Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, LTG Todd Semonite is leading the command’s multiple-mission support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) fighting COVID-19.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has been in support of FEMA under the national emergency response framework to rapidly push subject matter experts (SMEs) to States while working closely with Public Health Services, Department of Defense (DOD), the U.S. Army, and many other agencies and commands.  LTG Semonite has personally been available 24/7 to the President and Vice President of the U.S., the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Governors, and other senior leaders, as well as his own USACE force, to aggressively develop and execute engineering solutions to solve needs in hot spots as they appear or are projected.  He and his SMEs provided standard designs to States, territories, and tribes and provided technical support in identifying appropriate locations.  Among the first emergencies was the need to increase hospital bed capacity nation-wide.  In some cases, States requested through FEMA that USACE complete construction to transition facilities into Alternate Care Facilities.  The most visible was the conversion of the Jacob Javitz Center in Manhattan, but USACE conducted over 1126 surveys around the U.S. and awarded the expansion of 32 facilities for a capacity of over 14,500 beds by the third week of April.  The support of the Corps of Engineers against COVID-19 is critical, while also maintaining readiness and management of Civil Works, Military Missions, Environment Projects, Research and Development, Emergency Operations, Sustainability, and Safety and Occupational Health.  For daily USACE COVID-19 updates:  https://www.usace.army.mil/Coronavirus/.

LTG Todd T. Semonite
Resident Class of 1999
54th Chief of Engineers and CG, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Nathele Anderson, DDE ‘16

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I am serving as the Rear Detachment Commander for the 4th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) (ESC).  While the 4th ESC HQ is focused on the COVID-19 mission, I am focused on maintaining readiness and managing mission critical activities and events for non-mobilized units organic to the 4th ESC.  We can’t lose our focus on readiness.  Of course, COVID-19 impacts how we normally conduct business, but it does not prevent us from conducting individual training and taking care of our Soldiers, civilian workforce, and families.  It is a critical time for leaders to engage more frequently with Soldiers to ensure their well-being and aggressively get after individual readiness and mandatory training in a virtual environment.  We are working in a constrained environment, but our Soldiers and civilian workforce are adapting quickly in this unique environment.

COL Nathele J. Anderson
Distance Class of 2016

Russ Chambers, DDE ‘20

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Normally I serve as the officer in charge of the 4th Sustainment Command’s Early Entry Command Post, a mobilized group of 35 Soldiers who work directly with Army North to respond to any crisis and support exercises. Currently, for our COVID-19 response, I am the Support Operations Officer. Basically, I’m in charge of all the support operations or logistics operations that stretch outside the command. My team plans every sustainment activity, in every area of interest, throughout our operational area. This is a National pandemic that affects everyone. It’s different from something like a hurricane response where you can circle specific areas on a map. We are providing a nationwide response for a nationwide threat, so we have to be ready to go anywhere. I am super proud of my team; they have been working long hours and long days. We have to work quickly, and this team can do that. If I walk out and say, “hey, we might have a new area of interest,” it doesn’t take very long and we have a complete concept of support, even if we never have to use it. I am almost complete with my Army War College studies — heading into my electives now — but I just finished up Strategic Campaigning I and II back to back. I now have a better understanding of how, at the strategic level, they’re planning the concept of support, and why they bring forces on the way they do. It is really great to be able to understand myself and then relate to my Soldiers what’s going on at levels well above us.

COL Russ B. Chambers
Distance Class of 2020
Support Operations Officer, 4th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary)

Bruce Jennings, DDE ‘13

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I am the Chief of Staff at the 4th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) (ESC). My role in day-to-day operations and during the COVID-19 response is to synchronize all the efforts of the disparate staff functions — everything from personnel to logistical planning to operations — and also provide courses of action to our commander, BG Sue Henderson (DDE ’14) for her decision making. When I joined the Army, I never envisioned myself being mobilized within the continental United States to fight a disease or a virus, but this is real, this is homeland defense. We are an instrument of federal power, and here we are in a servant role, serving the needs of the population. Sure, this is a different kind of battlefield, but it is still defense. After our unit’s response to Hurricane Dorian last year, I think we were ready for this response. We learned from our challenges, we had a plan, we implemented it here, and because of that we are coming together better as a headquarters and staff. This is our Warfighter; this is a real-life Warfighter. We’re enabling those who are saving people’s lives, and I think everybody here at the 4th ESC can take some credit for that. We all played a role in getting the right instruments — in this case physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and the life-saving equipment they use — to the right place at the right time.

COL Bruce E. Jennings
Distance Class of 2013
Chief of Staff, 4th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary)