Marine Forces Reserve Hosts DSCA Seminar

NEW ORLEANS – Lt. Gen. Richard P. Mills, commander of Marine Forces Reserve and Marine Forces North, hosted senior leaders from the military and local government Aug. 5 and 6, 2015, for a Defense Support of Civil Authorities Executive Seminar.

DSCA is an important process conducted by United States Northern Command that explains the logistical capabilities of civil support as directed or requested to those governmental or agency-based entities in need of Department of Defense capabilities.

        “We run approximately four to six of these seminars a year,” said Mark Skattum, an exercise facilitator for North American Aerospace Defense Command, U. S. Northern Command. “We try to bring in anywhere from 25 to 30 senior leaders from the National Guard and local state and federal officials to discuss the role of NORAD and NORTHCOM in defense support civil authorities.”

The program has been in place for approximately five years and is conducted across the country.

The purpose of the seminar is to gain an understanding of the national response profile across all levels of response, and the roles of agencies and support to gain knowledge about the National Response Framework in the event of a catastrophe or natural disaster.

“Primarily NORAD and NORTHCOM provide logistical support, and whatever the federal government says they need to support the state,” said Skattum. “The way it works, when a disaster happens, the locals respond, the state responds, when that state has used its available resources, the governor tells the federal government that they need more assistance… Once that is accomplished the president makes a declaration stating that it is a natural disaster and the federal government looks at their resources and provides what they have, then if those resources are all used up, they turn to the DOD and tell them what the state needs more of.”

Robert Farmer, Federal Emergency Management Agency acting director for policy, he explained FEMA’s role and capabilities and the improvements the organization has made over the years.

“When Katrina hit, we had 1,700 people,” said Farmer. “Now we have more than 4,700 people with more pre-positioned sites for supplies and better training. We learned a lot of lessons and improved what we needed to, and we are still growing and getting better.”

Farmer explained the training further saying that after Katrina, FEMA ramped up its training by performing more pre-scripted training events to better prepare their responders.

The seminar focuses on events that are likely to happen in the area they occur. With the seminar taking place in Louisiana, the attention focused on hurricane response and coordination, using Hurricane Katrina as a reference.

“Ten years ago we had a city in ruins,” said Terry Ebbert, former Director of Homeland Security for the city of New Orleans. “Eighty percent of the city underwater, 90 percent evacuated, no drinkable water, no power, no sewer, and a difficult situation for responders. It was a logistical nightmare.”