U.S. implementing new type of military commander, for use on home soil.

Hopefully, this is all up and above board, but it's something that I'd bring to the attention of ATS members. Personally, I don't think there should be a bridge between active duty (Federal) and National Guard (State).

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AP) — The Defense Department is grooming a new type of commander to coordinate the military response to domestic disasters, hoping to save lives by avoiding some of the chaos that plagued the Hurricane Katrina rescue effort.

The officers, called dual-status commanders, would be able to lead both active-duty and National Guard troops — a power that requires special training and authority because of legal restrictions on the use of the armed forces on U.S. soil.

No one commander had that authority in the aftermath of Katrina, and military and civilian experts say the lack of coordination contributed to the nightmarish delays, duplications and gaps in the huge rescue effort.

"It was just like a solid wall was between the two entities," said Georgia National Guard Col. Michael Scholes, who was part of the Katrina response.

Top Defense Department officials believe dual-status commanders are the key to reducing at least some of those failures.

"We're going to be able to conduct disaster response operations on a large scale much more efficiently and effectively than we have in the past," said Paul Stockton, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense.

Dual-status commanders will provide a "unity of effort that is going to save lives on a large scale," Stockton said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005, killing more than 1,600 people and causing more than $40 billion in property damage.

An unprecedented 70,000 military personnel poured into the region to help, but active-duty and Guard troops often didn't know what the other was doing, according to William Banks, a professor at the Syracuse University law school who studied the response.

Banks likened the confusion to the Keystone Kops of slapstick movies, with too many troops bumping heads at some assignments while other tasks went undone.

The evacuation of New Orleans' Superdome was delayed by 24 hours because of a lack of coordination among the Louisiana National Guard, active-duty troops and state and federal officials, Banks wrote in a 2006 critique published in the Mississippi College Law Review.

By contrast, Scholes said, active-duty and Guard troops worked together seamlessly during the 2004 G8 Summit on Sea Island, Ga., where a dual-status commander oversaw the military presence. Scholes was part of that effort as well.

The dual-status concept is simple but the execution is not. The active-duty military is limited in what it can do at home. The National Guard in each state is in charge of helping civilian authorities during emergencies.

Active-duty and National Guard troops also have distinctly different chains of command. The president is the commander-in-chief of active-duty troops, while the Guard reports through a state chain of command leading to the governor.

A dual-status commander would straddle that divide. With the approval of both state and federal officials, he or she would get temporary authority to command both types of troops and report up both chains of command.

The U.S. Northern Command, with headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., began training dual-status commanders last year. Northern Command was created after the 2001 terrorist attacks to defend the U.S. homeland and help civilian authorities handle domestic crises like Katrina.

The goal is to have at least one officer in each of the 50 states and in four U.S. territories qualified and ready to be a dual-status commander on a moment's notice, said Adm. James Winnefeld, commander of Northern Command.

"So if you have a sudden emergency, earthquake, hurricane, you name it, we want to be able to have a National Guard officer able to command federal forces," Winnefeld said in interview earlier this year.

Dual-status commanders have been used in disaster drills and at planned events, including the 2004 summit in Georgia, but Northern Command officials say they haven't yet been tested in a real crisis.

Bridging the gap between active-duty and National Guard troops is tricky because of questions about who should be in charge, Winnefeld said.

"There's always been, I would say, a gentlemanly disagreement between the states and the federal government, at least for the last decade probably, on who would actually have the responsibility for commanding federal forces responding to a disaster in a state," he said.

Winnefeld believes in nearly every case the National Guard should be in charge.

"We believe that the right person 99 percent of the time to command the entire military response inside a state is a National Guard officer who is from that state, is appointed by the governor and understands that state and has been trained by the federal side to understand the federal side of this kind of response better than almost any federal officer would," Winnefeld said.

Winnefeld, who is also commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, called the dual-status program "one of my proudest accomplishments since I've been here." He will be leaving the two commands to become vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff pending Senate confirmation later this summer.

Governors like the dual-status commander concept, said Heather Hogsett, director of homeland security and public safety for the National Governor's Association.

"Governors have embraced the dual status commander concept as a way to preserve their existing authorities within their states ... The National Guard commander reports to the governor, (so) you are preserving that chain of command," she said.

Syracuse's Banks, in an interview with the AP, said disaster victims also prefer the Guard take the lead.

"If you ask them who they'd like to have protecting them and enforcing the laws in the event of a crisis, they'd rather have their neighbors....than somebody from thousands of miles away," he said.

External Link (Yahoo)

Awesome, all they have to do is declare any area a disaster zone and can circumvent the posse comitatus act.

Inching ever closer aren't we?

This exact same post is directly below yours on the same page. Why didn't you add this to that one that's currently going?

Originally posted by kro32
This exact same post is directly below yours on the same page. Why didn't you add this to that one that's currently going?

Didn't see it. Got a link? If so, I'll PM a mod and have them remove my thread. No problem.

Edited to add: I went to the NWO threads and there isn't anything related. Please let us know where this other thread is.

Something to keep an eye on.

I guess we really won't be able to tell if it works till a disaster comes along.

Some info I found on the subject. From 2009 but informative.

The lack of unity of effort between the National Guard and Federal military forces must be resolved. Natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornados, floods, and earthquakes repeatedly demonstrate that catastrophes can strike unexpectedly and may quickly overwhelm the ability of local, county, tribal, and state governments to respond. Incidents contained in national planning scenarios such as chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosive (CBRNE) events are also possible and may be even more overwhelming. It would be a tragedy if any state had difficulty in teaming with the Federal military if any of these scenarios occurred. This article examines the command and control of military forces in support of civil authority and recommends that the Title 32 dual-status command arrangement be mandated and institutionalized for all domestic military civil support responses, including no-notice catastrophes.

usacac.army.mil...

here

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by jam321
Something to keep an eye on.

I guess we really won't be able to tell if it works till a disaster comes along.

Open some flood gates, gas leaks, chemical/radioactive leaks, terrorist attack, ..... There are at least a million man-made ways to create a disaster zone, IF it was absolutely necessary.

Disaster zone, Mandatory evacuation zone.... Let the games begin.

See you at the local FEMA camps when the time comes.

reply to post by jam321


This is what scares the hell out of me. I don't think the U.S. military should have any C&C when dealing with any civilian authority. I can support the NG doing it, but not active duty military. Conversely, I don't think our NG men and women should be serving in Afghanistan or anywhere else outside the U.S. borders. Just my opinion on the matter.

reply to post by Fractured.Facade

See you at the local FEMA camps when the time comes.

I'll bring the beer.

Can't wait to see whether Governors really like this as the article states.

Originally posted by kro32
here

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Thanks! I'll ask a mod to lock mine. Her's is in the "Military and Government Projects" forum. Mine was in NWO. That would explain why I didn't see it. No worries.

More info

A dual-status commander holds a federal hat (Title 10) in one hand and a non-federal hat (Title 32) in the other, but can wear only one hat at a time," said Gary Mills, operations training coordinator, Army North. "When in federal status, the CDSC takes orders from the President or those officers the President and the Secretary of Defense have authorized to act on their behalf, and may issue orders to Title 10 (federal) forces under his command." "When in a non-federal status, the commander takes orders from the governor through the adjutant general and may issue orders only to National Guard Soldiers serving in a Title 32 or state active-duty status."

www.army.mil...

reply to post by navy_vet_stg3


I hope these don't represent those certain aspects of the military complex being assumed by our alien friends according to that crazed phone caller to the Art Bell Show from this thread I was on yesterday www.abovetopsecret.com...

Please contribute to previously existing thread: New type of commander may avoid Katrina-like chaos.

Thank you

Thread closed.