ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - More than 90 Florida National Guard Soldiers and Airmen are directly supporting Operation Deepwater Horizon this week.
"We will mobilize additional forces as the situation dictates and the missions are directed by the Florida Division of Emergency Management," according to a press release from the state.
Additionally, there are many members of the Florida National Guard and Department of Military Affairs providing indirect mission support through their ongoing day-to-day work. We as an entire organization are focused on the emergency at hand and will support it in varying roles, which may not be reflected in a specific number count.
Soldiers continue on the ground in Panama City Beach, Fla., in the Bay County area as they conduct beach patrols with 20 mobile teams helping identify oil spill product and reporting it to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The more than 90 Soldiers and Airmen on Title 32 (Federal) status are under Gov. Charlie Crist's command and control, all in coordination with the National Incident Command and other federal and state agencies. Missions for the Florida National Guard are routed through the state emergency operations center in Tallahassee.
The Florida National Guard is currently operating with Soldiers and Airmen at these locations:
- Liaison officers with Unified Area Command in Mobile, Ala.
- Liaison officers with Unified Area Command in Robert, La.
- Liaison officer with Peninsula Command in Miami
- ESF-5 (Planning) and ESF-13 (Military Support) at the State EOC in Tallahassee, Fla.
- Fla. National Guard Joint Operations Center in St. Augustine, Fla.
- LUH-72 helicopters in Destin, Fla.
- C-23 airplane in Destin, Fla.
- Dragoon operations in Pensacola (for receiving aircraft signals of product locations)
- Ground recon beach patrols for Bay, Gulf and Franklin Counties, Fla.
- Mobile operations command center at St. Andrews State Park in Bay County, Fla.
- Joint interoperable communications system at St. Andrews State Park
- 601st Air Operations Group (101st AOG) supporting aerial imagery in Robert, LA; representing Air Force - Northern Command
- Liaison officers with the State Emergency Response Team (SERT) and counties such as Escambia, Santa Rosa, Gulf and Bay
The Fla. National Guard is coordinating with the following centers, in addition to the National Guard Bureau:
State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC/ESF13) Tallahassee, Fla., FLNG Joint Operations Center (JOC) St Augustine, Fla., Unified Area Command, Robert, La., Unified Command, Mobile, Ala., Florida U.S. Coast Guard Peninsula Command, Miami, Fla., and incident commands located in St. Petersburg, Miami and Key West, Fla.
Our near-term missions and potential missions include liaison (LNO) support, planning teams, public affairs support, and ground and aerial reconnaissance of Florida coastal regions, forward command and control, and communications support. Planning is ongoing for potential activation of additional recon and State Emergency Response Team liaison teams.
The Deppartment of Defense provided federal funding for 2,500 Florida National Guard troops in Florida, who are still under the command and control of Crist, to perform Deepwater Horizon missions.
"The missions we perform are similar to what we train for in combat," according to the press release. "We use our trained Soldiers and Airmen with the same equipment and capability we would use in federal deployments except adapt to domestic response."
Mission sets include aviation support, transportation, security, search and rescue, supply, maintenance, medical, decontamination, communications, engineering, base camp operations, reconnaissance (air and ground), staff coordination and assistance and liaison.
"We have more than 8,000 Soldiers and Airmen available in event Florida Division of Emergency Management needs to call us up," according to the press release. "Of this 8,000, there were 2,500 approved by DoD to be funded on federal status under the governor."