National Guard | Army War College Foundation, INC. - Part 11

Army War College Foundation, INC.

Enriching, Enhancing & Encouraging

National Guard

Aaron Radlinski, DDE ‘20

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I am a member of the Michigan Army National Guard.  In my normal status, I am the G6 for the state.  As of late March, that role was expanded to become the J6 for the state (a role which hasn’t been filled by a Signal Officer in ~ 2 years).  The significant challenges we have overcome have been a rapid development and implementation of telework software (Microsoft Teams, Jabber, Skype for Business), and having over 2,000 daily users logging in over VPN which is nearly an order of magnitude increase in daily traffic.  My G/J6 team have been working mostly in a telework fashion, but have not once let a mission critical piece of hardware or software fail.  We have expanded our VPN capacity from 508 to 4000 user capacity, developed new policies and guides to facilitate new-user training, and incorporated Air Force personnel into what had been an Army-dominated Joint Staff.  It has been a very memorable experience thus far.

Aaron A. Radlinski
Distance Class of 2020
LTC, SC,
Director of Information Management

Matt Woodruff, DDE ‘18

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I am currently commander of the 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team from the Ohio National Guard. We stood up Joint Task Force 37 (JTF37) in response to COVID-19. I command the JTF37 and currently have over 500 Soldiers, Airmen, and members of the Ohio Military Reserve supporting several operations. We currently support the Ohio Association of Foodbanks at 12 locations throughout the state. These teams receive, sort, package, and deliver food to vulnerable populations and people in need. The usual volunteers at these locations are no longer able to report to the sites for work. We are managing a Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) donation location and a Receipt, Store, and Stage (RSS) site for the state of Ohio. These sites receive and distribute medical supplies and equipment to county emergency management agencies and county health departments for hospitals, medical professionals, and first responders. Most recently, we established a medical task force to provide medical support to a federal prison in Ohio. These doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel will assist with management and treatment of inmates throughout this emergency.

Matthew S. ‘Matt’ Woodruff
Distance Class of 2018
COL, IN
Commander, JTF37

#InThisTogetherOhio

 

 

Brent Orr, DDE ‘18

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I am with the Joint Task Force (JTF)-RALEIGH J3/J5 North Carolina National Guard, working COVID-19 in Direct Support to NC Emergency Management. We stood the JTF up as a Domestic Operations Crisis Management planning and force provider task force capable of transitioning to Dual Status Command on demand. The North Carolina TAG and JTF current CDR are also USAWC grads, as is my Deputy J3/5.

Brent A. Orr
Distance Class of 2018
COL, AV
Director, J3/J5/J7 (JFHQ-NC)

Kurt Mueller, RES ‘18

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As the Hawaii State Command Chaplain, I have been managing the religious support response for the State of Hawaii pandemic response for our governor (HI DoD / HI EMA / HI DHS). During the COVID-19 response, this involves harnessing the power of social media and technology to minister to the needs of the Soldiers and Airmen that are responding to the pandemic or are sheltering at home. The spiritual support is available through virtual services and bible studies on facebook pages and one-to-one counseling is available through doxy.me accounts.

Rev. Dr. Kurt A. Mueller
Resident Class of 2018
LTC, Chaplain
ACCTS, Missionary Pastor

Tom Leeper, RES ‘19

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Tom Leeper, RES ’19

I am the Arizona Army National Guard State Surgeon. I have been a member of the Joint Task Force Arizona since March 18th in support of the State’s efforts to combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. We stood up Joint TF MED comprised of Army and Air Guard health professionals from physicians to medics. We perform planning functions, Force Health Protection functions, JRSOI functions (medically screen Soldiers and Airmen who are coming on active duty orders), provide medical advice to the AZ NG TAG and JTF Commander, provide direct support to the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs (DEMA), and provide direct assistance (via strike force) to medical facilities in extremis. AZ NG teams have assessed multiple health care facilities and offered methods to improve Incident Command processes, streamline operations, and properly utilize resources to realize maximum benefit from them. We have provided health care facilities training and planning for patient movement. In addition to the various issues at the state level, I have been involved in direct support to the Navajo Nation (NN), which has been the COVID hot spot in Arizona. Both the infection rates and instances of critical illness by COVID have skyrocketed on the NN. In late March, I took an eight-person Army National Guard medical team (strike force) to Tuba City Regional Healthcare Center as the result of a distress call. Health care systems in Northern Arizona are stressed both with respect to shortages of medical materiel and staffing. Personal protective equipment (PPE) is universally short and drastic measures are being undertaken to conserve this resource. Staff absenteeism is high due to illness, fear, and family care commitments. The hospitals on the Navajo and Hopi Nations are small (most 70 beds or less) and critically-ill patients must be transferred over vast distances to tertiary care facilities. Since the COVID outbreak, we have flown and driven hard-to-get items of PPE to hospitals in the Navajo and Hopi Nations. I deployed a medical liaison officer (LNO) to Northern Arizona to focus on the Navajo and Hopi Nations’ health care facilities to interact with them on my behalf. My team and I interact daily with representatives from Navajo and Hopi Nations, DHHS, CDC, FEMA, and Indian Health Services, to name a few entities. Our TF has become integrated into Arizona’s Incident Command and continues to work closely with incident commands throughout the State. Our ability to communicate and coordinate efforts inter-service and interagency have made all the difference in this crisis. The Arizona National Guard offers a wide variety of capabilities in this all-of-government, all-of-community response. In the heat of battle, hospitals are too overwhelmed to look up and out. They are devoting everything to the fight at hand. We have the overall view and can help plan a way out of the tight fixes. We have visibility of assets that a struggling organization may not otherwise know about. We also have compassion and empathy, and direct “skin in the game.” When the battle is over and COVID is defeated, we won’t pack up and leave. We live here with our families and are part of these communities. Note: COL Leeper’s USAWC Strategy Research Paper was “DoD Response to Pandemic Influenza.”

COL Tommy C. ‘Tom’ Leeper, MC
Resident Class of 2019
Arizona Army National Guard Surgeon

Matt Stubbs, DDE ‘19

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I am working at the state level as the Arizona Army National Guard G6. VPN reliability, collaboration tool support (Microsoft TEAMS), and network reliability are key tasks to support the telework environment and enable social distance policies during this COVID-19 situation.

Matthew D. ‘Matt’ Stubbs
Distance Class of 2019
COL, MP