Photo by Adam Skoczylas Subject matter experts assist installation personnel with training in the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Installation Protection Program for a Conceptual Design for the Installation, March 9.

The group fully understand their day to day missions and responsibilities, said Enoch Godbolt, the director of JBM-HH DPTMS, ‘‘and together the team accomplishes these tasks steadily, with the use of the 120-day model governed by the military decision making process.”

According to DPTMS’s mission statement, they coordinate current operations and taskings, personnel security, training and ammunitions management.

Plans and operations:
A primary function of the staff is to maintain and update contingency and operation plans. They also stand up the JBM-HH emergency operations center when required. DPTMS coordinates JBM-HH’s participation in ceremonies and special events, and manages security programs for the community, said Robbie Clarke, chief of plans and operations.

Clarke must be aware of events taking place at Fort Myer, Fort McNair and Henderson Hall. His job is to ensure everything goes as planned.

‘‘We are the centralized location for information for Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Clarke said. ‘‘And we also [make sure events don’t conflict with one another],” he said.

‘‘Let’s say we have a ceremony happening at Fort Myer and we have another event happening at the same time at Fort McNair. In order to [solve our problem with these two events conflicting] we look at the long range and short range calendars and come up with the best solution,” Clarke said.

‘‘We are like an information hub and anything that goes on at any of our installations has to come to us first,” he said. ‘‘Our biggest hurdle is ensuring that the personnel involved are aware that we are the hub for any event or ceremony so things happen as planned.

‘‘We were scheduled for 24 ceremonial events and we ended up having 52 events. That’s 28 more events than scheduled throughout the year,” Clarke said. ‘‘We are a liaison between Joint Task Force Headquarters at Fort McNair and Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall during emergencies or crisis management, as we call it. We stand up as the emergency operations center and bring in different directors, or others, depending on who we need to run a 24-hour operations center.

‘‘Last week we had former Secretary of State Alexander Haig’s funeral and a funeral for Robert L. Howard, a Medal of Honor recipient, we had to arrange for. At the same time we had to coordinate removing the snow at Memorial Chapel so a ceremony could take place there,” Clarke said.

During the 2010 blizzard a few weeks ago, the joint base commander was briefed three times a day concerning events or emergencies happening at JBM-HH, Clarke said.

Clarke further explained that the operations division of DPTMS executes plans while the plans division’s primary concern is future operations.

Plans Division
John Newman, chief of the plans division at DPTMS, is responsible for developing plans for emergency operations and making sure significant events run smoothly at JBM-HH.

Currently, Newman and the plans division staff are preparing for a number of upcoming events, including Public Service Recognition Week, the Easter Sunrise Service at Arlington National Cemetery, and a Joint Service Open House which happens every year in May and more.

‘‘We support MDW,” Newman said.

‘‘They are our executive agent. MDW gives us a list of things they need and we provide it,” he said. ‘‘For example, we are now working on the spring cleanup plan. And we are working on the redeployment of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment back to Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall from Iraq,” Newman said.

‘‘We discussed this plan last week and now we are in the process of integrating their welcome back ceremony,” he said.

DPTMS’s mission for the plans division is to oversee the garrison Personnel Security Program, and prepare and coordinate contingency plans, antiterrorism operations, exercise operations security, emergency management and a variety of others important tasks to protect and promote operations at JBM-HH.

Emergencies
‘‘During the Blizzard of 2010 my operation responsibilities included making sure that I kept the commander, [Col. Carl R. Coffman Jr.] updated about where the storm was coming from, [including such things as] road hazards, fallen trees, road conditions and the snow removal plan,” said Malanya Wesley, emergency manager, and a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives, equipment specialist.

‘‘I also provide the commander with recommendations. It is our responsibility to make sure everyone affiliated with JBM-HH is notified of installation closures, like the commissary for example, and our mass notification system that we [employ] helps by notifying everybody of what is going on, whether it’s a blizzard or an emergency.”

Wesley said JBM-HH has never encountered as much snow [as last month’s blizzard] since she has been working here, and she thinks DPTMS did a great job in helping to keep everyone safe and informed.

‘‘When it comes to Mother Nature we all have to be flexible and patient,” she said.

Security Division
Another key department in DPTMS is the security division which oversees key compliance requirements in a myriad of different ways to ensure maximum protection in the interest of national security.

‘‘Everything in security is threat-driven,” said Sharon Hatch, security intelligence specialist for DPTMS. ‘‘The threat being: who is coming after us? What have they done before? What are they capable of? And what they are planning to do to us?” Hatch said. ‘‘This is where the intelligence part comes in by gathering and disseminating information, asking if the threat is criminal, terrorist or computer-generated. The information is then sent to the commander to decide what actions need to be taken to prevent it,” she said.

‘‘We are also responsible for validating whether people dealing with classified information have the proper clearance,” Hatch said. ‘‘Everybody who comes to work for the Department of Defense is required to have an investigation to determine if they are trustworthy. We process the paperwork and send it to the Office of Personal Management who investigates everyone who comes and works on the installation,” she said.

‘‘We are responsible for non-appropriated fund Department of the Army employees. We are also responsible for the installation’s contract security guard employees,” Hatch said.

‘‘Security involves many checks and balances,” she said. ‘‘Do we have the right people in the right positions to do the right work and protect everyone? Protection is the biggest thing. I have a lot of friends and Family who work for the government and the Department of Defense. I am passionate about security. I don’t want classified or sensitive information released. This is our country. We live here. Let’s keep it safe.”