My Notes: The following is an email I received from my brother. He is a distinguished Army Captain, currently attached to a Chemical unit in Chicago. More importantly, he's a talented musician/artist, a connoisseur of fine foods/liquors/beers, and a astute world traveler.
His wisdom comes from loves won and lost; from the backwoods of Louisiana to the mountains of Italy; from war-torn, undisclosed locations in Southwest Asia, to fully disclosed bars on Chicago's north side. On the rare occasions that he writes, it's golden.
I just thought I'd share...with his permission of course.
This marks the first time that I am intimately involved in two front-page CNN.com articles at the same time. In the second article, I command a unit that makes up some of the "...few hundred first responders" mentioned in the article. The article is pretty much dead-on, except for one thing: the money is there. People have been hurling money at me since I took this job. I can't spend it fast enough. I get equipment sent to me that I don't even ask for. What is completely missing is the command emphasis on the problem. ARNORTH [U.S. Army North] is the most quoted agency in the article. Those guys really have good plans, equipment and knowledge of what needs to happen in a crisis. What they don't have, is a direct command relationship with the people who are actually doing the work.
My chain of command still goes through the US Army Reserve Command (USARC). We would only fall under ARNORTH after an incident occurs and we are called for. USARC supports the mission, but they care a hell of a lot more about the Soldiers that they are pushing to Iraq and Afghanistan than the ones that are tasked with homeland defense. The National Guard guys have it a little worse and a little better. They can respond quicker because they are a state asset, but they have virtually no contact with the federal side. They, like me, also suffer from an overwhelming lack of priority compared with units supporting OIF/OEF. (note: Operation Iraqi Freedom/Enduring Freedom)
We have the desire and most of the resources. What we don't have is a chain of command that is set up for this mission. Since OIF and OEF are not going to go away, the only real solution is to pull us out from under USARC/NGB and put us straight under ARNORTH before an incident. ARNORTH has the plans and the expertise. USARC and the National Guard Bureau (NGB) are just learning this stuff and can't put the proper emphasis on it because of their wartime missions. Write to your congresspersonages, or whatever. Tell them that an extremely clever (and handsome) person that you know has a solution to this problem.
Just thought I'd rant for a while since I can't get to my office. All-in-all, I am very happy with the article because it means I will finally be getting some real support from up on high (We all know that CNN is the real driving force behind DOD policy).
Take care, enjoy your Groundhogs day.
Matt
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Epilogue: I wrote back to my brother asking permission to reprint this. In it, I said "Have you ever considered writing professionally?". His immediate response was golden: "I do write professionally. Unfortunately, my target audience doesn't read professionally."
Joined: 01-06-07
My Notes: The following is an email I received from my brother. He is a distinguished Army Captain, currently attached to a Chemical unit in Chicago. More importantly, he's a talented musician/artist, a connoisseur of fine foods/liquors/beers, and a astute world traveler.
His wisdom comes from loves won and lost; from the backwoods of Louisiana to the mountains of Italy; from war-torn, undisclosed locations in Southwest Asia, to fully disclosed bars on Chicago's north side. On the rare occasions that he writes, it's golden.
I just thought I'd share...with his permission of course.
---------------
Wow,
Just so happens that I cannot get my car out of the parking lot because of: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/02/01/severe.weather.ap/index.html
So I have a little time to read the news and I see this:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/01/guarding.america.ap/index.html
This marks the first time that I am intimately involved in two front-page CNN.com articles at the same time. In the second article, I command a unit that makes up some of the "...few hundred first responders" mentioned in the article. The article is pretty much dead-on, except for one thing: the money is there. People have been hurling money at me since I took this job. I can't spend it fast enough. I get equipment sent to me that I don't even ask for. What is completely missing is the command emphasis on the problem. ARNORTH [U.S. Army North] is the most quoted agency in the article. Those guys really have good plans, equipment and knowledge of what needs to happen in a crisis. What they don't have, is a direct command relationship with the people who are actually doing the work.
My chain of command still goes through the US Army Reserve Command (USARC). We would only fall under ARNORTH after an incident occurs and we are called for. USARC supports the mission, but they care a hell of a lot more about the Soldiers that they are pushing to Iraq and Afghanistan than the ones that are tasked with homeland defense. The National Guard guys have it a little worse and a little better. They can respond quicker because they are a state asset, but they have virtually no contact with the federal side. They, like me, also suffer from an overwhelming lack of priority compared with units supporting OIF/OEF. (note: Operation Iraqi Freedom/Enduring Freedom)
We have the desire and most of the resources. What we don't have is a chain of command that is set up for this mission. Since OIF and OEF are not going to go away, the only real solution is to pull us out from under USARC/NGB and put us straight under ARNORTH before an incident. ARNORTH has the plans and the expertise. USARC and the National Guard Bureau (NGB) are just learning this stuff and can't put the proper emphasis on it because of their wartime missions. Write to your congresspersonages, or whatever. Tell them that an extremely clever (and handsome) person that you know has a solution to this problem.
Just thought I'd rant for a while since I can't get to my office. All-in-all, I am very happy with the article because it means I will finally be getting some real support from up on high (We all know that CNN is the real driving force behind DOD policy).
Take care, enjoy your Groundhogs day.
Matt
--------------------------
Epilogue: I wrote back to my brother asking permission to reprint this. In it, I said "Have you ever considered writing professionally?". His immediate response was golden: "I do write professionally. Unfortunately, my target audience doesn't read professionally."