Sustainment Operations Paper

The mission command system is expressed as the placement of individuals within a unit conducting operations with a specific set of procedures and principles in place to optimize the use of its equipment. What does it mean to recognize or comprehend the art of Command and the science of Control? There are six key principles of mission command in developing a cohesive team that support all aspects of a mission. The following essay will discuss these principles and examine examples of how the famous Operation Anaconda both endured victories and inadequacies.

According to U.S. Army Medical Department (2015), the congress authorized the establishment of the Army Medical Service, which today is known as the Army Medical Department (AMEDD) on July 27, 1775. The establishment of the Medical Services paved the way for the United States Army to serve the people (Soldiers and civilians) by providing medical support. Moreover, trained medical personnel to effectively treat illnesses and prevent disease as they occur throughout time. This is important because the establishment of AMEDD sets forth the standards of care for the ever growing AMEDD personnel of today. These accumulated experiences obtained from significant milestone are responsible for creating the present medical services (i.e.., Medical Corps, Nurse Corps, and Dental Corps) that provides care to the wounded and sick. To me, AMEDD regiment serves as a backbone to my dedication to

From the years 1995 through 2003, I was an Air Force medic stationed in Germany. For the first five years I was an Airman at the 86 Aeromedical Staging Facility (ASF). Our mission at the ASF was to transport patients back and forth from the flight line as they traveled to and from their medical appointments from their assignments across Europe and sometimes over the Atlantic Ocean to various Medical Treatment Facilities (MTFs) located in the Continental United States (CONUS). Our daily operations were fairly routine and all of the technicians knew their assigned roles well whether they were driving a vehicle, transporting luggage or caring for traveling patients. ASF operations were fairly routine, even mundane, until 26 June 1996, a terrorist blew up a dorm filled with Air Force personnel in the Middle East called Khobar Towers.

At the state level 13 of the 15 Emergency Support Functions (ESF) were activated and worked out of the state operations center, which allowed us to share information quickly, as well as coordinate response activities. At the state level the WOHS deputy director provided the leadership and we worked through and with the Operations Section Chief.” (R. Sherard, personal communication, June 10,

During a declared disaster, the State Medical Assistance Teams (SMAT) are coordinated by the SMRS. They are requested and activated as an ESF-8 resource. These teams may be requested by other states across the nation to respond to major events through a mutual aid system between states (Mississippi State Medical Assistance Team, 2008). The SMAT concept was again modeled after the North Carolina SMRS SMAT, allowing for enhanced interoperability between the two states. One SMAT is up to a fifty-bed mobile field hospital designed to support impacted healthcare systems in a disaster. Mississippi has three SMAT units that may be deployed separately or combined. These teams provide the state of Mississippi an effective, all-hazards solution to support various missions. These mission profiles include disaster field medical care, alternate care site, weapons of mass destruction response, hazardous material response, contingency management, pharmaceutical point of distribution, and/or event medical support (Mississippi MED-1, 2009). The SMAT staff are both non-clinical and clinical providers from around Mississippi that undergo advanced disaster training and orientation to the mobile field hospital setting. Each of the SMAT mobile field hospitals provides a full array of clinical services that include cardiac telemetry, digital x-ray, ultrasound, ventilators, and intravenous pumps. Combining the efforts of the advanced trained staff with the

When I first joined the squad as a cadet, I marveled at the sheer quantity of tools and supplies housed within the seemingly endless cabinets, compartments, and containers of the rig. To me, our ambulance was a dream come true, a tangible love song to over-preparedness and utility that perfectly complemented my desire to be over-prepared and useful to my patients in the field.

Inpatient Admissions. Inpatient Census for the deployment was low contributing to the ability of having a Mental Health Provider and Mental Tech Technician. Six of the twenty seven Surgical/ICU admissions were MEDEVAC for further evaluations. All six MEDEVAC were provided medical attention by the CCRN with help from the Quad Zero or Respiratory Technician.

Your discussion board has a lot of valid points in the topic of US Military Sustainment Operations. You stated about the concern of the shrinking of our Military and the possibility of losing our technological superiority. I agree that instead of downsizing our military we need to be building it. It’s sad when there are extremely qualified CW3’s and CW4’s that didn’t make promotion only to be forced out. Those aviators that are being forced out are a big part of our senior leadership that will no longer be there. When funds get cut from our military, so too does our steps ahead to strive for technological advancement. It is good that we are so well versed in Sustainment Operations and being able to work jointly with the other branches of the

Commanding in a crisis can be challenging if not prepared for it. The odds of commanding through a crisis as described in the readings pertain more to an installation commander than any other more traditional command. The application of this subject is better defined as to how to be integrate your command during a crisis in your installation. In my case, my brigade is a tenant unit in Ft. Knox and has no authorities or decision power on what will be done in case of a crisis. Although I can see units participating in human relief or terrorist attack situations on or off-post, I don’t see my brigade providing any resources to a crisis besides assisting others as needed or being part of a post level emergency response plan. Now, I can see commanding

Tuesday, August 30th, the morning after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Louisiana, Anne Pou, a head-and-neck surgeon, looked out the window of Memorial Medical Center to see water gushing from the sewer gates, rushing towards the hospital (Fink). Senior administrators quickly set up a command center to assess the impending danger gushing towards the hospital and to decide what the next plan of action should be. Decisions were made to evacuate patients in order of importance. Richard Deichmann, the hospital’s medical-department chairman also suggested that patients with Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders should go last (Fink). The plan was set to action as the natural disaster continued to take its toll on the limited medical personnel available

As stewards of our profession, commanders ensure that military expertise continues to develop and be passed on to aspiring professionals through operational development. It is during this developmental phase that Professional Soldiers put their knowledge and skills to the test. Operational Army units certify and recertify their Professional Soldiers through repetitive and realistic training events including the Combat Life Saver Course, platoon live fires, and exercises at the National Training Center. In the course of these challenging and realistic experiences, the Army’s operational units develop Soldiers and leaders prepared to maintain high standards, discipline, and operational readiness. Operational development and adaptability will continue to drive changes in Army doctrine, organization, leadership, and education as we enter the post-war era. Without this kind of development, the Army could not maintain a well-disciplined professional fighting force.

Army sustainment is based on an integrated process (people, systems, materiel, health services, and other support) indivisibly linking sustainment to operations. The concept focuses on building a combat ready Army, delivering it to the combatant commander (CCDR) as part of the joint force, and sustaining its combat power across the depth of the operational area and with unrelenting endurance (ADRP 4-0, Chap. 1, Intro.) Sustainment maintenance is off-system component repair and/or end item repair and return to the supply system or by exception to the owning unit, performed by national level maintenance providers. National level maintenance providers include the Army

Next we will look at fire and rescue. The organization of the incident command is almost the same as the medical responders. According to Fire and Rescue, 2008, the following are the organizational areas for fire and rescue: “Organization on the incident ground, this gives the Incident Commander a recognized system from which to work when organizing and using resources at an Incident, Incident Risk Management, the principal consideration of Incident Commanders is safety of their personnel. Therefore, prior to deciding upon the tactics an assessment of risk must be performed. The Incident Commander must identify the hazards, assess the risks, and implement all reasonable control measures before committing crews into a risk area,

It had only been three weeks that I started working for Everest ER, a clinic operated at 17400 ft in the Himalayas. Our logistics manager told our medical team that he saw a massive avalanche falling on the queue of around two hundred Sherpa porters, who were carrying loads to Camp One at 19680 ft.Without having any time to soak in the news of the disaster, we immediately started our preparation to receive the casualties. We had no idea about the types of injuries and the number of peopIe affected. Even worse, we feared that the deaths could be much higher. Our team of doctors, paramedics and trained rescuers present on the Base Camp worked in a coordinated fashion. After 12 long hours between helicopter rescues and

Sustainment is defined by the Army as “the provision of logistics, personnel services, and health service support necessary to maintain operations until successful mission completion.” The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines sustain as “to provide what is needed for (something or someone) to exist, continue, etc.; to give support or relief to.”