Missouri Guard’s Task Force Phoenix leads debris removal
By Jennifer Archdekin
Missouri National Guard
JOPLIN, Mo. - Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced on Monday that Task Force Phoenix of the Missouri National Guard will supervise the cleanup and removal process of the millions of cubic yards of debris that remain from the deadly tornado that ripped through Joplin on May 22.
The National Guard will provide oversight to the federal resources coming to Joplin and the surrounding communities, Nixon said.
“I’ve been clear from the start,” said Nixon. “We will rebuild Joplin. It is a job that is going to take time, no question about it. But we are here for the long haul, and removing the vast amount of debris is a key part of working with the people of Joplin to bring their city back.”
President Barack Obama approved the federal funding needed to help with the expedited removal of debris, pledging the federal government will pay 90 percent of the debris removal cost.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, State Emergency Management Agency, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, City of Joplin, municipality of Duquesne, county governments and numerous other agencies are partners in the effort.
Army Col. William A. Ward, commander of Task Force Phoenix and the 110th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, is leading his team to aid the citizens of Missouri.
An initial debris removal contract was awarded Sunday, which allows immediate debris removal to begin. As this mission continues, Ward said there will be a ramping up process with efforts steadily increasing as resources arrive.
“You’ll start seeing progress immediately,” said Ward. “There’ll be trucks and loaders hauling off the debris starting this week. In the coming weeks, you’re going to see a lot of progress.”
Ward said the debris will first be removed from public rights of way and will later expand to private property meeting the criteria.
Efforts began Tuesday in Sector D-6, which is in the heart of Joplin, the north central part of the affected area. Additionally, Ward said the Corps of Engineers is already working to provide more contracts to aid in the effort.
“They will come online as available and together with EPA contracts to remove hazardous debris will form the backbone of our debris removal program,” said Ward.
At the same time, Task Force Southwest Twister continues their mission providing military police support at traffic control points and presence control.
“All of us greatly appreciate the non-stop work the Guard has been doing down here since day one and they continue to have my utmost confidence as they take on this monumental effort,” said Nixon.
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After Afghanistan: Deadly tornado new test for Citizen-Soldiers
By Army Sgt. Jon E. Dougherty
Missouri National Guard
JOPLIN, Mo. - A year ago, the 203rd Engineer Battalion, Missouri Army National Guard, woke up every day in a war zone; on May 22, a deadly tornado blew through this southwest Missouri community of 46,000, leaving behind a path of devastation worse than most of these combat engineers experienced in Afghanistan.
Charged with clearing improvised explosive devices from hundreds of kilometers of bumpy, dusty – and dangerous – roads in the war-torn country’s restive east, members of the 203rd served their nation doing one of the hardest jobs in theater.
Now, they have stepped up to serve their state and community, a task made equally daunting by the sheer level of destruction left in the wake of a six-mile-long, half-mile wide swath of pure terror.
Most of them say dealing with the tornado and its aftermath is by far much harder on them than eluding Taliban IEDs and rocket fire.
“It wasn’t like anything I saw in Afghanistan,” said Army Staff Sgt. Mike Byers, with the 203rd’s Headquarters and Headquarters Company supply section. Byers, who watched the storm touch down on local television, immediately left his home north of town en route to the unit’s armory on 32nd street. But he couldn’t get there right away.
“I headed for 20th street because from the reports it sounded like [the tornado] hit there pretty good,” Byers said. The destruction he witnessed was unimaginable.
“There were victims everywhere – people bleeding,” he said, adding that he and a friend who was with him immediately began pulling victims to safety.
Compared to Afghanistan, he said, the effects of the storm on his hometown was much more difficult to comprehend.
“The worst thing is to have so many victims at once,” said Byers. “In Afghanistan, when you hit an IED, there are far fewer casualties.”
Army Sgt. 1st Class Tim Goth, the 203rd HHC’s readiness noncommissioned officer, said the devastation here was much worse than anything he witnessed overseas.
“There were people coming up out of the neighborhood (near the armory) who were pretty much distraught, barefoot, soaked to the bone – very confused and disoriented,” Goth said. “We didn’t have water; we didn’t have much of anything at that point.
“I gave them some clothes that I had here at the armory. I gave them some MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat – portable meals given to Soldiers in the field), just whatever I could to help them out,” he said.
Goth said that while he was proud to serve the nation with his battalion, serving his own community is a higher calling.
“Being closer to home, it’s not that you have more compassion for the people involved, but it’s your hometown, and it’s just tough to see your neighbors, friends, family go through this,” said Goth. “The amount of devastation and seeing other soldiers’ families that were affected, it’s tough. It’s real tough.”
More so than being in Afghanistan?
“Definitely,” he said. “You’re in a different mode. It’s more personal here – it’s home.”
Army Spc. Chris Moss, a member of the 203rd, agreed. Though he initially responded to the disaster as a member of his community’s fire department, within a few hours of the tornado he reported to the armory once he got the call he was being mobilized.
Moss saw firsthand the scenes of death and destruction the tornado left behind when he first arrived on the scene to provide assistance.
“When the Alabama tornadoes hit, you know, I felt for them. I kind of knew a little about what they were going through,” Moss said. “Now I know exactly what they went through. I had some good [Guard] friends who lost everything.”
Though part of his job as a firefighter is to deal with such emergencies, Moss said it’s harder to do when it happens in your own community, adding that he continued to provide medical assistance and triage for civilian emergency crews.
Army 1st Lt. Mitchell Boatright, assistant operations officer for the 203rd, said he has been at the staging point at the National Guard armory in nearby Carthage since the storm and has not seen the damage, but the tornado was very personal for him nonetheless in that it ripped the roof off the home of his sister and brother-in-law.
“She’s okay, but it was close,” Boatright said. “They were in the center of the path, in the basement of their house when the roof came off.”
Though under fire a number of times overseas, Boatright said dealing with the storm and its aftermath is actually worse.
“The damage here is to family and friends,” he said. Overseas, “you have a small group that is your family. Here, it’s the whole community.”
These combat engineers all agreed – watching their community be torn apart and its citizens suffer is worse than anything the enemy can dish out. But they also realize they are in the best possible position to help.
“You’re just a person helping another person,” said Moss.
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Missouri Governor: National Guard will spearhead federal cleanup project in Joplin
Office of the Governor of Missouri
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced today that the federal government will pay for 90 percent of the cost of expedited debris removal in parts of the Joplin area that received catastrophic or extensive damage from the devastating tornado that hit on May 22.
The Governor received word late Monday that the state application for the federal funding for the expedited debris removal had been approved by President Barack Obama.
Nixon is scheduled to hold a 4 p.m. news conference today at the Missouri National Guard Armory in Joplin to talk about this development, which will help in the Joplin rebuilding effort.
The Governor will be joined by Army Col. William Ward, who is leading the Guard’s Task Force Phoenix. Gov. Nixon has directed Task Form Phoenix to lead the debris removal effort.
The federal funding will help with the expedited removal of millions of cubic yards of debris from the location of homes, businesses and other buildings in Joplin, and Nixon has ordered the Missouri National Guard to serve as the state’s point agency on the debris removal process.
Army Maj. General Stephen L. Danner, adjutant general of Missouri, has assigned Ward to lead Task Force Phoenix in that effort.
“As I have said from the start, we will rebuild Joplin,” Nixon said. “That is why I ordered the Missouri National Guard to lead the process of removing debris as soon as possible and to work with families and business owners to facilitate debris removal from their property.
“I have met personally with Army Brig. Gen. John McMahon, commander of the Northwest Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Col. Ward; and other leaders of Task Force Phoenix to discuss their mission and the importance of clearing this debris so that we can move forward with rebuilding Joplin as quickly as possible.”
“The Missouri National Guard has been working non-stop to respond to this disaster from the first day, and this 90 percent federal funding will be of great assistance as we work through the challenge of removing a vast amount of debris and rebuilding this community,” he said.
Nixon also spoke directly with President Obama about the importance of moving forward with debris removal on an expedited basis in order to rebuild the community.
The federal debris removal program is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with the assistance of the Corps of Engineers.
It addresses debris removal in communities within, or immediately adjacent to, areas of catastrophic or extensive damage, and before debris removal teams can go onto private property, property owners will have to give their permission.
FEMA will determine the degree of destruction by using a combination of mapping and information from local, state and federal officials who have surveyed the damage first-hand.
More information about the program such as how residents and business owners can request debris removal will be made available in the coming days.
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Missouri Guard unit erects mobile field hospital in shadow of damaged hospital
By Army 2nd Lt. John Quin
Missouri National Guard
JOPLIN, Mo. - In the shadow of the twisted husk of St. John’s Hospital, a reminder to them the importance of their mission, a group of Missouri National Guard members erected a mobile hospital unit in a fraction of the time they were given.
Already conducting annual training nearby, Soldiers of the 117th Engineer Team (Asphalt) were conducting search and rescue missions within hours of the tornado hitting Joplin, said Sgt 1st Class Steve White.
“We’re here to help relieve the pain,” White said. “We bring a lot of heavy equipment and can get to things that a lot of other agencies can’t. The thing about the Guard is, when we get here, we’re ready to work.”
For hours, the Soldiers did just that, searching through the wreckage of several large chain retail stores in the darkness, only to see by morning the amount of destruction that had hit the city, said Army Staff Sgt. Jeremy Pruitt.
“It was so dark you couldn’t see anything [that] late at night,” Pruitt said. “The first morning was exhausting but it was just an eerie feeling looking across everything and seeing the damage.”
The destruction in Joplin reminded Pruitt of another place he’d seen in his Guard career.
“It looked like it had been hit by a bomb,” he said. “A lot of us had been in Baghdad and had worked on the U.N. building when it had blown up and it looked a lot like that – total destruction.”
Even for the experienced Soldiers of the 117th, the scale of the wreckage caused by the tornado was difficult to believe.
“We’ve worked on tornados but they were smaller areas, smaller paths,” White said. “There was nothing like the destruction you see here.”
Regardless, because of the nature of their mission, the Soldiers were prepared for the worst.
The 117th is the Missouri National Guard’s search and extraction team, and they quickly transitioned from search and extraction training to the real-deal in the span of a week, working 20 to 22-hour shifts searching for survivors in the wreckage and supporting the needs of first responders, White said.
“If we get called out, it’s usually because people are dead or dying,” he said. “We’re going to get here as quick as we can. [Army] Col. [Randy] Alewel, our brigade commander, always [says] that the Guard is there to help good people during bad times, and we feel like we’re doing that right now.”
As more help arrived, the team began to work alongside firefighters from the Joplin area and around the state, Pruitt said.
“Those guys do it every day,” he said. “It’s an awesome experience working with the firemen. We’ve got a lot of respect for those guys.”
As the week went on and more aid poured in, the 117th continued their mission. After working long days with little rest, the team was presented with a new challenge: to disassemble and reassemble a mobile hospital outside St. John’s Hospital, White said.
A fresh team could disassemble a mobile hospital in 12 hours, White said. His team did it in four. When it came to re-assembly, the team again completed their mission in a fraction of the time.
For Pruitt, who lives in nearby Pierce City, it was a chance to help their neighbors.
Setting up the field hospital for St. John’s Hospital means that residents will have access to additional medical care.
In the days after the tornado, St. John’s Hospital had become a symbol of the destruction, and the Soldiers of the 117th hope the field hospital will stand as a sign of renewal for Joplin residents.
“It’s an honor – it’s a huge honor,” Pruitt said. “I know every one of my guys in my unit would be down here in a heartbeat if it happened again. That’s what we signed up for.”
Whether it’s in a nearby town, across Missouri, or in a neighboring state, Pruitt said units like his coming to town immediately after an incident reassures the people who have been through difficult times.
“When we roll into town and they see our convoy and they see these uniforms, it brings organization and peace of mind to know that we’re here for them,” he said. “Whether it’s giving them water or food or helping them with medical needs or even picking up pictures out of their yard to help them salvage what they can salvage, we’re going to do whatever it takes to help them out.”
Missouri’s Soldiers and Airmen will continue working in support of local authorities until released by the governor.
Units supporting the tornado response include: Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 35th Engineer Brigade, of Fort Leonard Wood; 110th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, of Kansas City; 1107th Aviation Group, of Springfield; Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 203rd Engineer Battalion, of Joplin; 175th Military Police Battalion, Columbia; 3-135th Aviation Battalion, of Lebanon; Company A, 935th Aviation Support Battalion, of Aurora; Forward Support Company, 1139th Military Police Company, Harrisonville; 1-138th Infantry Regiment, of Kansas City; the 220th Engineer Company, (Horizontal) of Festus; 276th Engineer Company (Vertical), of Pierce City; 294th Engineer Company (Equipment Support), of Anderson and Carthage; 117th Engineer Team (Asphalt), of Monett; the 1138th Military Police Company, of West Plains and Springfield; 1140th Military Police Company (Guard), of Fulton and Columbia; the 70th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment of Jefferson City and the Joint Operations Center at Joint Force Headquarters in Jefferson City.
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Missouri Guard to supervise debris removal, cleanup per Gov. Nixon’s order
Missouri National Guard
JOPLIN, Mo. - Gov. Jay Nixon has ordered the Missouri National Guard to supervise the cleanup and debris removal process in the Joplin area.
Citizens-Soldiers and Airmen were activated immediately following the May 22 tornado and are ready for their new mission, said Army Maj. Gen. Stephen L. Danner, adjutant general of Missouri.
“We are ready for the new mission Gov. Nixon has given us and are prepared to help our friends and family in Joplin in every way we can,” Danner said. “Everyone in the nation wants to do everything they can for our neighbors in Joplin, and the Missouri National Guard is in a position to do just that.
“We’ve been working tirelessly alongside thousands of state and local agencies to help the people of Joplin through this crisis, and we’re ready to do even more.”
The Guard will work alongside the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has been tasked with leading the contracting effort, said Army Col. David Boyle, director of plans, operations and training, at the Missouri Joint Force Headquarters.
“The Missouri National Guard will monitor and handle quality assurance to make sure the job is being done right and priorities are executed - that’s what the Corps of Engineers and Missouri National Guard will partner together to do,” Boyle said. “We will work side-by-side with the Corps of Engineers to monitor the cleanup.”
Boyle said it is expected that one or two large contracting companies would be hired, but that the work will be done by local contractors which will aid in the economic recovery by creating jobs locally.
Meanwhile, the Guard is continuing the work it has been doing since the storm hit.
Ongoing missions, which include working with local law enforcement, remain a major priority for the Guard.
Citizens-Soldiers are manning traffic control points and patrolling, and Soldiers from the 117th Engineer Team have also set up a mobile hospital outside St. John’s Hospital in Joplin.
“We are here for the people of Joplin - for the big missions and the small ones,” Danner said. “Whether we’re talking about the Citizens-Soldiers who will be supervising the debris removal or we’re talking about Missouri National Guard military policemen manning a traffic control point, every part of our mission is important.”
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