Georgia selected as location for regional homeland response force

Georgia Guard to lead robust new unit

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue announced recently that Georgia has been selected by the Department of Defense as one of 10 states in the nation to host a homeland response force (HRF).

"Georgia's selection as the home of our region's homeland response force is another testament to the skill and courage of our Guardsmen," said Gov. Perdue. "The Georgia National Guard has proven itself time and time again. I am proud that Georgia will serve as the home for the Southeast homeland response force."

These homeland response forces are to be established in 2012 and will number 570 highly trained personnel located in each of the 10 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regions.

Each HRF will provide a regional response ability composed of all domestic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high yield explosive (CBRNE) consequence management capabilities. HRFs will self-deploy by ground within six to 12 hours of an event, bringing life-saving medical, search and extraction, decontamination, security, and command and control capabilities rapidly to bear. This represents a dramatic improvement in response time and life-saving capability to the previous construct.

"We are proud to be selected to lead the HRF for our FEMA region," said Maj. Gen. William T. Nesbitt, Georgia's Adjutant General. "This demonstrates the confidence our national leadership has in our capability to respond when the need arises. It is a great honor to be chosen for this important mission but also a great responsibility, and we will be ready to meet that challenge."

HRFs are part of a DoD reorganization which provides a robust ability to respond rapidly to domestic CBRNE incidents. The reorganization recognizes the key role that the governors play in controlling the response to incidents that occur in their states.

Georgia's HRF will have responsibility for the 4th FEMA region responding to incidences in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Along with Georgia, the other states and territory selected by the DoD are Puerto Rico, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Kentucky, Nevada, Oregon, and Maine.Earlier this year, the DOD announced the states of Ohio and Washington will be the first states to establish HRF organizations in 2011.

Existing CBRNE Enhanced Response Force Packages (CERFP) in the states will evolve into HRFs. These formations, composed of existing National Guard units, will be trained to respond to weapons of mass destruction incidents, including: locating and extracting victims from a contaminated environment, performing mass patient/casualty decontamination, and providing medical treatment as necessary to stabilize patients for evacuation.

Georgia's new HRF will be based on the existing 78th Troop Command of the Georgia Army National Guard, and located at Dobbins Air Reserve Base. It will include the Georgia Guard's current CERFP and will add approximately 100 fulltime positions necessary for quick response.

Raytheon opens Soldier Works warrior integration center

Raytheon Company has opened its new Soldier Works facility to improve collaboration with military and industry partners in developing new soldier systems and warfighter technologies in Columbus, Ga.

Located near Fort Benning, Ga., Soldier Works can employ virtual simulation, human factors engineering and network-experimentation capabilities to design, demonstrate and test force modernization solutions.

"Soldier Works provides closer proximity to the soldier, our key military end-user, for demonstration and testing of emerging warfighter systems," said Glynn Raymer, vice president, Raytheon Network Centric Systems Combat Systems. "As we engineer soldier systems, netted ground-vehicle systems and immersive training solutions, we can now do so with greater efficiency and closer customer collaboration through this versatile facility."

"Raytheon views Soldier Works as an investment in innovation, customer relations and the local community," said Mark Scott, director, Soldier Works, which also serves as a Raytheon field office.

With a small full-time staff, the center expects to host annually more than 500 Raytheon employees, partners and customers. These visitors could represent an estimated local economic impact of up to $250,000.

Raytheon operates a similar integration center, Gruntworks, near Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va.

Raytheon Company, with 2009 sales of $25 billion, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, homeland security and other government markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 88 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as a broad range of mission support services. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 75,000 people worldwide.

Fayetteville ranked as 2nd highest per capita income in NC, surpassing Raleigh and Charlotte

The Fayetteville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce recently announced that, according to data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the per capita income of military communities Fayetteville and Jacksonville, N.C., has surpassed all other metro communities in the state for 2009. Per capita income in the Fayetteville metro area, which includes Cumberland and Hoke counties, was $40,917 in 2009, up 4.8 percent from 2008's $39,054. In the Jacksonville metro area, it was $44,664 in 2009, the highest in the state and an 11.9-percent increase from 2008's $39,932.

"This is outstanding news for our community," said Doug Peters, president and CEO of the Fayetteville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce. "We expect this trend to continue as businesses move here to support the new military installations moving to Fort Bragg as a result of BRAC 2005."

According to The Fayetteville Observer, "wages dropped between 2008 and 2009 in North Carolina's 11 other metropolitan areas and in most of the 366 metro areas in the survey. Communities whose economies were connected to the military or other government functions tended to see increases, while most tied to private industry suffered, a news release with the data says. Nationwide, pay fell 2.8 percent between 2008 and 2009, to $40,757."

"Economists agree that even with the draw-down in Iraq and Afghanistan, our community will continue to grow due to expansion in the private sector," said Peters. "Growth in the military sector is good for everyone as those pay dollars are spent locally fueling our economy."