Kansas Guardsmen, state officials visit Armenia

TOPEKA, Kan., (8/3/09) – Kansas National Guard members recently returned from a trip to Armenia, where they discussed how Kansas can enhance its three-year partnership with the country, which shares a border with Iran.

"The partnership has really matured," Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the adjutant general of Kansas, said during a news conference on July 31. "It's an evolving partnership."

Bunting said he and Armenian officials discussed bio security, agricultural development and education and law enforcement.

"The biggest amount of training we've done on the civilian side has been in emergency management, because Armenians had one of the worst disasters in a long time in 1988 with the earthquake," he said. "That's why they're the only country besides the United States to have an expeditionary medical system, so they have a portable means to take medical to the scene."
The trip to the former Soviet Republic was part of the State Partnership Program established by the National Guard Bureau that links a state to a country to enhance cooperation and interaction.

State officials on the trip included: Lt. Col. Craig Beardsley, program administrator for the National Agricultural Biosecurity Center at Kansas State University, and Blake Flanders, vice president of work force development for the Kansas Board of Regents.
Beardsley told the Topeka Capital Journal he talked with Armenian agricultural officials about how they respond to and manage foreign animal diseases and shared how the United States plans and trains for outbreaks.

"Some of the diseases not in the United States are in that country," he said, listing foot-and-mouth disease as an example. "It was an opportunity to visit with agricultural folks that actually manage (the diseases) and get their insight into diseases we don't deal with on a weekly or daily basis."

Flanders told the Capital Journal his focus was on assessing where improvements could be made in the Armenian educational system, including how it could be leveraged to support economic development.

Sharon Watson, the state public affairs officer, said 37 civil engineers from the 190th Air Refueling Wing of the Kansas Air National Guard are building a climate-controlled warehouse in Armenia, which will be used to store medical equipment and supplies.

Other state officials on the trip were: Martha Vanier, associate director of the National Agriculture Biosecurity Center at K-State, who joined Beardsley is talking with Armenian agencies about a biosecurity threat-reduction plan; Fred Cholick, dean of K-State's College of Agriculture and director of Kansas State University Research and Extension, who helped identify opportunities for K-State/Armenia initiatives focusing on agricultural development; and Maj. James Brown, operations officer for the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department, who discussed strategies with the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs and Armenian police officials.

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