Inauguration Collaboration
Written by Colonel Herbert H. Wesselman and Lieutenant Colonel
Information-sharing technology played a key role
in coodinating the many military organizations
involved in the 2009 Presidential Inauguration.
As January 20, 2009, approached, JFHQ-NCR transitioned into Joint Task Force-National Capital Region (JTFNCR), executing a three-pronged mission to provide ceremonial support to honor the commander in chief; provide DoD capabilities to support approved requests from civil authorities; and “be prepared to” support the lead federal agency in response to any consequence management requirement. Mission execution on Inauguration Day depended on the ability to coordinate actions by multiple active, Guard and Reserve units, as well as numerous local, state and federal interagency partners.
Communicators and IT professionals working behind the scenes, and the use of collaborative tools at all levels to coordinate the diverse actions were key enablers for mission success on Inauguration Day.
Fortunately, this operation occurred in the National Capital Region, where the communications infrastructure is dense. This density enabled communications planners to use existing infrastructure, and extensions to temporary facilities located throughout the Washington, D.C., area, to provide a diverse communications architecture to support the mission. The architecture included wired and wireless phones, land-mobile and tactical radios, and NIPRNet connections.
On January 20, the AFIC had one fixed and 11 temporary facilities performing command and control functions, public affairs interaction, vehicle dispatch, and law-enforcement coordination. JTF-NCR had units deployed to Capitol Hill, the parade route and various interagency command nodes throughout the NCR. Joint Task Force-Capital Medical was similarly deployed throughout the NCR.
Additionally, the National Guard deployed elements from the D.C. National Guard (JTF-DC) to coordinate National Guard support throughout the NCR. Finally, the Virginia National Guard (JTF- 29) was prepared to support consequence management using Fort Belvoir, Va., as a staging base.
INFORMATION EXCHANGE
The use of the Defense Information Systems Agency applications Defense Connect Online (DCO) and Jabber Chat facilitated the exchange of information, coordination of actions and execution status tracking. There were multiple collaborative sessions established in support of the inauguration.
Functional communities established rooms to facilitate actions within that community of interest. For example, the AFIC communications teams assigned to each field location used a collaborative session to provide status updates to the Communications Coordination Cell (CCC) in the AFIC Ceremonial Information Center (CIC).
The AFIC CIC in turn had its own collaborative session with participants from all functional areas to track completion of items on the master events list. Taken in total, the use of collaborative tools provided shared situational awareness, enabling each organization to succeed in its assigned mission.
The National Guard employed its Joint Incident Site Communications Capability (JISCC), which included 15 systems throughout the NCR supporting JTF-DC, and four systems at strategic locations in Maryland and Virginia in support of JTF- 29. The JISCC is a multifunctional communications platform that provides the National Guard with its onsite communications, collaborative tools platforms (networking, video teleconference and satellite reachback), and interoperable radio communications with local/civilian first responders supporting the incident scene. Following the tenets of the “USNORTHCOM-National Guard Bureau Joint CONUS Communications Support Environment (JCCSE) Concept for Joint C4,” National Guard communications for C4 response were coordinated by the Joint C4 Coordination Center (JCCC).
The JCCC is the key element for effective C4 response and has consistently proved itself since inception during the Hurricane Katrina response in 2005. Information sharing and event management (request for information or assistance) were accomplished for the National Guard Bureau using the Joint Information Exchange Environment (JIEE), a Webbased tool accessed by all 54 state and territory National Guard joint force headquarters (JFHQs), as well as USNORTHCOM, to ensure key/timely information flow and situational awareness. The JIEE effectively allowed the National Guard to coordinate the capabilities from state to national level—ensuring mission success on Inauguration Day.
Collaborative sessions facilitated much more than execution of the ceremony. For instance, JTF-NCR J6, service component-6s, NGB J6 (JCCC), JTF-DC J6 and JTF-29 J6 had communications capabilities supporting the ceremony, and others in a “be prepared to” status that could respond in a consequence-management mode. The JTF-NCR Joint Network Control Center (JNCC) hosted a DCO session with participation from each of these organizations. Although they were not full-time participants, the communications staff from the District of Columbia Homeland Security Emergency Management Agency was also able to participate in the session.
Thankfully, the consequence-management functions of this session were not called upon during the inauguration. Had an event occurred, however, this collaborative session was established to facilitate the identification of units and capabilities that could respond in accordance with the JTF-NCR commander’s authorities under the Stafford Act, as well as orchestrate responses to approved mission assignments from the lead federal agency.
WEB-ENABLED PLATFORM
One other collaborative capability, Web Emergency Operations Center (WebEOC), utilized daily in the NCR, supported the interagency effort on Inauguration Day. The WebEOC capability provides a Web-enabled platform to share incident information among emergency response agencies. While there are local instances of WebEOC for many jurisdictions, within the NCR the state and local emergency management agencies—D.C. Homeland Security Emergency Management Agency, Maryland Emergency Management Agency, and Virginia Department of Emergency Management—agreed to use a common WebEOC for National Special Security Events. This agreement enables over 140 federal, state and local command nodes in the area to share information and coordinate actions.
Leading up to the inauguration, communicators and IT professionals practiced and exercised the communications and collaborative tools necessary to support the mission. Integration of collaborative tools at all levels of the operation ensured that every ceremonial detail, logistics movement and law-enforcement link up was executed to the standard required to properly recognize the new commander in chief.
Collaborative tools enabled multiple units and organizations to deliver approved DoD capabilities to venues across the NCR to support civil authorities. In addition, exercises including the use of collaborative tools assured units and organizations were prepared to respond in any consequence management event. Finally, the team of active, Guard and Reserve communicators supporting the inauguration was proud to have represented all military communicators on this historic event. ♦
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Colonel Herbert H. Wesselman is with the Air Force, and Lieutenant Colonel George T. Rivers is with the Army National Guard.