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 Liveblogging:
Noble Resolve 07-2
Robert
Pursell from U.S . Joint Forces Command Public Affairs
blogged live Aug. 22 from
Noble Resolve 07-2, the latest in the command's series of
experiments
examining ways to improve information sharing between various
levels of government and improve military support to civil
authorities both before
and after
natural
and man-made disasters. The experiment brings together numerous
partners at the federal level, such as the Department if
Homeland Security and U.S. Northern Command, and at the state
level, such as the state of Oregon.
Editor's
note: USJFCOM Public Affairs provided an Really Simple
Syndication (RSS) feed for this liveblog all day. This
allowed readers to track Robert's entries
in real time as they are posted. Click here to
add this feed to your RSS reader. To learn more about
RSS and other feeds USJFCOM offers, click here.
 12:15
p.m. -
I'm here in Suffolk, Va. today for the third day of
U.S. Joint Forces Command's (USJFCOM) Noble
Resolve 07-2, a series of experiments designed to improve
information sharing and enhance homeland defense measures
and military support to civil
agencies during natural or man-made disasters.
Although
sponsored by USJFCOM, Noble Resolve is an experimentation
campaign plan supporting U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM).
You might remember NORTHCOM was the command set up after
9/11 to work the military aspects of homeland defense.
Noble
Resolve
participants
look
at this as a great opportunity to open the lines of communication
by sharing information in the event that there was ever a
real threat aimed at the U.S. and its interests.
I'm situated in the middle of the Joint Operations Center
at USJFCOM's Joint
Futures Lab where I have a first-hand
view of everything that's going on. There are three huge
projection screens in the front of the room, each showing
something different. I'll get to what those are later. There
are also about 50 people here, each with their own computer.
It shows how far technology has come in the last couple of
decades and how it's being put to good use.
This
portion of Noble Resolve is focused on the Pacific theater.
In April's Noble Resolve 07-1, the scenarios involved
threats in Norfolk, such as a terrorist
threat on a ship in the city's harbor and what would happen
if a massive hurricane came into town, how would authorities
react and
share information?
Today, some of the scenarios will include a tsunami hitting
Hawaii and an earthquake causing a dam break in Oregon.
Just as I typed that, someone on the loud speaker just announced
that there was tsunami warning off of Hawaii, so I guess
we're on our way. In my next blog, I'll discuss some of the
technologies and tools that participants are using for these
experiments.
 2:31
p.m. - At this point in the experiment, the scenario dealing
with the Hawaiian tsunami has officially become a disaster.
Officials have just announced that the tsunami has hit
Waikiki Beach and water has come up to the first floor
of beach hotels. When all this is going on, especially
with Hawaii which is miles from the mainland, one might
ask, "How will they receive any support?" That's
what Noble Resolve is all about.
As
I noted earlier, this event it using state-of-the-art technology
to its fullest in order to share information in
a high-speed fashion. USJFCOM officials are particularly
excited because it's a chance to use some of its own modeling
and simulation (M&S) tools.
I had the chance to talk to Navy Capt. John Kersh, the experimentation
director of Noble Resolve who explained to me what I was
seeing in the front of the room on the three huge displays.
He said the first screen on the left, showed the Event News
Network, along with C-SPAN.
"It's
a Web site for just the participants where all of our video
pieces are parked," he said. "You can click
on them and bring them up. We'll put up video that we've
created displaying simulated footage of the disaster. We
have our own news network, kind of like CNN."
The middle screen shows the Integrated Common Analytical
Viewer (ICAV), owned by the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS).
In the weeks building up to Noble Resolve, organizers seemed
excited over the chance to use this tool.
"It is the common operational picture that DHS is using.
It allows us to work through processes with first responders
at the different fusion centers," said Kersh.
ICAV
looks like a map of the area they're focusing; in this
case it is Hawaii. Participants can apply different layers
to give different looks for the area. For example, you can
apply a layer that shows all of the hospitals in the area
so you can figure out a plan as to which hospitals are available
or closest to the impact zone. Also, because ICAV is web-based,
it's easier to access as well
Kersh
said the screen on the right displayed the master scenario
event list which indicates which scenario is being executed
and its description just to keep people on the same page.
Another
announcement was just made. As part of the simulated event,
it seems that the Oregon earthquake scenario just
kicked off. The announcement, which I now know is coming
from the Event News Network, said buildings in Portland are
on fire and the Beaver Dam just collapsed causing wide-spread
flooding. It seems like there's a lot going on at once here,
yet everyone is calmly doing their job.
 4
p.m. -- Sitting in front of me are foreign officials
from Japan and Finland. In addition to the state and government,
USJFCOM is also partnering with foreign liaison officers
from other countries for Noble Resolve 07-2. One of those
liaison officers is Col. Byungjin Park, from the Republic
of Korea.
He discussed with me what he is looking to get out Noble
Resolve for his country, which has a long history as an active
geological region.
"We have the same situation with our changing environment," said
Park. "With the military we have to coordinate with
the civil authorities, so in terms of that, we use the scenarios
here to develop a process to provide assistance to our disaster
areas."
He said once his government takes all that is learned from
past disasters in their region and develop their own process,
they'll be in good enough shape to provide support to other
countries.
"We are going review our own process to help provide
support to international disaster areas," said Park. "We
have lessons learned from Katrina, from the tsunami in Asia
in 2004, as well as the Pakistan earthquake situation. It
has also allowed us to review our own government process.
Park also noted that the opportunity to work with such intricate
information tools is beneficial.
"With some of the experimentation tools, such as ICAV,
it will be very interesting and helpful to update our own
systems," he said.
After speaking with Col. Park and looking around at the
other liaisons busy at work, those countries are really going
to benefit from their involvement here.
 6:31
p.m. - When looking around, all you see is people busy
talking and clicking away on their keyboards. But what are
these people actually doing and what piece of the puzzle
are they to fit into this Noble Resolve campaign? That's
sort of the untold story around here for an outsider. I decided
to go around and talk to a few people to see what their role
in this was.
One
person I talked to was Mark Nesselrode, a training analyst
from Old Dominion University. He was brought in help set
up the training portion of the event and keep a watchful
eye on it. Once things wrap up, he'll evaluate and offer
recommendations on where to improve the training process.
 I
also talked with Lisa
Orloff, founder and executive director of the World Cares
Center. She explained why her
organization is participating.
"We
saw after 9/11 a larger way that we need to utilize our
citizens more effectively in disaster response. They need
to be not only asked to serve but educated and trained
properly so they can be used as force multipliers for disaster
response," she said. "We're here to observe and
to see if the technologies can be used to more effectively
to allow responding agencies to access those resources."
I
also had the chance to converse with Matt Begert, an executive
for the National Institute for Urban Search and Rescue.
Like the others he's here observing for his organization.
He said the process was extremely beneficial and it's a
great first step.
I
talked to Marine Corps Lt. Col. Brad Stillabower. He is
a reservist who, based on his experience with FEMA, is
a role
player acting as a representative from there.
"They have role playing slots associated with different
agencies and they didn't have anyone here from FEMA so they
asked me to pretend that I'm from there and answer questions
and simulate as if I worked there," he said.
7:40
p.m. - So far, we've discussed everything that's
been going on here in Suffolk, however, most of the action
is out
west. I was given the opportunity to speak with Air Force
Maj. Marty Plotner of the Oregon National Guard. He's the
guy in charge out there.
Plotner
said so far things have been going well.
"We're thrilled with the opportunity to get the experience
and work some of the systems that other agencies are also
examining," he said. "The internal review on some
of our procedures is fantastic and it's a great opportunity
for us to expand our relationship building because we have
a number of first responder and local folks participating
and it's a great network for us."
He explained the benefit of working with USJFCOM.
"The
biggest benefit is that USJFCOM is actually actively testing
these systems and trying to work both the interoperability
and information distribution processes."
Plotner
discussed what's next for everyone out in Oregon.
"Our next step is taking some of the lessons learned
and some of the tabled items that we weren't able to resolve
this week and problem-solve that out and to continue to expand
the networks that we're working with," he said. "It's
also going to be important to ask questions of the agencies
that we're working with, including the Office of Emergency
Management and local first responders, and get ready for
the next exercise. The hope is that we're well-prepared and
well-suited when the first emergency does arrive."
That
just about wraps things up for the third day of Noble Resolve.
As I noted earlier, this is an information sharing
event. This is a great way to experience it, without it actually
happening. If a similar threat were to occur, authorities
can draw back on their experiences from Noble Resolve and
say, "Hey, this is what worked in Noble Resolve, let's
apply that to our current situation."
Watching
things up close and personal, there are some extremely
bright and intelligent people, along with some sophisticated
tools, on the right path to creating processes for dealing
with disaster.
This
concludes the liveblogging for Noble Resolve 07-2. If
you have more questions, please click here to
send us an email.
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