FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa., - The new Domestic All-Hazards Response Team (DART) is not an asset that will come into states uninvited during an emergency, the commanders of the eight National Guard divisions were told by officials here recently.
"The DART does not come in to your state and take over," said Army Maj. Gen. Wayne Pierson, commander of the Kansas National Guard's 35th Infantry Division. "The DART comes in to say 'O.K., adjutant general, you asked for help, we're available.'"
He added that a state's adjutant general is the one "to pull the trigger" on DART.
"If you have a robust state with robust assets, that's fine; this is just another asset," said Army Maj. Gen. Randall Marchi, the commander of the 28th Infantry Division of the Pennsylvania National Guard, which hosted the 2010 Division Commanders Conference.
The DART mission designates two Guard divisions, every two years, for planning and command and control in the event of an emergency in the United States.
DART planning helps Guard leaders know what military resources are available in one state to assist with emergency relief in another state.
"The adjutants general of the affected states request the assistance," he said, adding that the adjutant general of the state receiving the request for aid would sign off on the movement of resources.
As two of the first divisions to take on the DART mission, the 28th and 35th will have the task of building standard operating procedures and force packages that succeeding DART mission holders will use.
New York State's 42nd Infantry Division is slated to take over the DART mission in October in the east and California's 40th in the west. The east mission encompasses 26 states and two U.S. territories, and the west includes 24 states and one territory.
The National Guard Bureau has already stood up 22-man DART planning teams in the east and west, which are comprised of Army and Air Guard personnel.
"If an event happens east of the Mississippi, the primary division is the 28th," said Col. Hank Amato, chief of operations for the Army National Guard. "Our intent is to have a primary division east and west of the Mississippi."
"When it's needed, we have access sooner, because we know who is available sooner," said Army Brig. Gen. Daniel Nelan, special assistant to the director of the Army Guard.
Officials said DART would impact the planning of state level emergency management agency officials in a positive way.
Nelan told the conference attendees that it's important to remember "what DART is and what it is not."
Officials also discussed a need to fill warrant officer slots in military intelligence units and aviation units but said much progress has been made in updating equipment.
"Although modernization of specific equipment, such as truck and helicopter fleets, remains a long-term challenge, for the past two fiscal years, the Army National Guard has received $10 billion of new equipment," said Army Col. Michael Fortune, the chief of the material programs for the Army Guard.
Army Col. Mark Strong, the chief of force management for the Army Guard, presented an overview of the new division headquarters structure that was approved by the Department of the Army on Jan. 11.
"The Army did a complete relook of every single organization type to gain efficiencies and "pay down some personnel bills in the process," he said.
The new Division 9.1 design headquarters will convert from a three-unit organization with three separate Unit Identifier Codes (UICs) to one with only one UIC, the division headquarters.
Although there will be 50 percent fewer tactical wheeled vehicles, the new division headquarters will maintain its full mobility and will modernize much of its communications equipment, Strong said. The new division headquarters will also lose about 100 personnel spaces, but will gain 31 new military occupational specialties (MOS).
"So there may be a need for about 128 of the 730 total division soldiers to reclassify or retrain for new MOSs," Strong said.
Additional division capabilities will include knowledge management, electronic warfare, information operations, civil affairs and personnel recovery among others.
The 35th ID is currently converting while the 34th and 40th Divisions start in FY 10. The 28th, 38th and 42nd will begin their conversions in FY 11, and the 29th and 36th conversions will occur in FY 12, said Strong.
Deployments of division headquarters were also discussed at the conference. Nelan presented the current deployment plan or "Patch Chart" to the commanders. He described the availability of division headquarters to deploy to support Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Kosovo Force (KFOR) support and also potentially the humanitarian assistance operation in Haiti, Operation Unified Response.
Unit deployment selections are determined based on a variety of factors including their "dwell time" or time they have been at home station between deployments, their personnel availability based on current Unit Status Reporting (USR), and training and equipment levels.
Division headquarters will not normally be deployable, said Nelan, if their dwell time is less than 24 months, if they have a brigade combat team or if more than 50 percent of the state's forces are deployed.
Nelan was quick to point out that there are exceptions to these rules that are made on a case-by-case basis.
Also, units currently assigned the DART mission will not be deployable to enable them to respond to domestic emergencies if needed.
The Patch Chart showed the deployment needs over the next five fiscal years.