To layout a strategic overview of Religious Support in a Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) environment for the Illinois National Guard focusing on geographic separation, organizational abandonment and continuity of care during a projected 7.7 magnitude earthquake

David Brady

English

Humanities Commons

The purpose of this paper is to layout a strategic overview of Religious Support in a Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) environment for the Illinois National Guard focusing on geographic separation, organizational abandonment and continuity of care during a projected 7.7 magnitude earthquake with a concentration on the challenge the Calumet & Illinois Rivers poses for timely and effective Religious Support to our Service Members, their families and other Department of Defense (DoD) authorized personnel. Using Peter Drucker’s ideas on “Organized Abandonment”, not to be confused with organizational abandonment, I will measure what we do now in comparison to how we can achieve a more effective Religious Support plan in relation to this perceived major natural disaster.  Before we take on the task of accomplishing this scenario, we should pause for a moment and review what are the Chaplain Corps’ mission, capabilities and its core competencies. AR 165-1, Army Chaplain Corps Activities, defines the mission as “assisting the commander in providing for the free exercise of religion and providing religious, moral, and ethical leadership.” The two prime concerns that this scenario draws out is how the Religious Support Teams (RSTs) will accomplish their two Chaplain Corps Capabilities; as a religious leader to perform or provide Religious Support and second as the religious staff advisor to their Commanders. The second concern is to accomplish their three core competencies: Nurture the living and Care for the wounded (injured). Honor the dead may come to play at another point and is an important aspect of a disaster but I will not address that here. These capabilities and competencies come from Army FM 1-05 Religious Support. Other publications such as JP 1-05, Religious Affairs in Joint Operations reiterates these same concepts. JP 3-28 Defense Support of Civil Authorities reminds RSTs:   “The Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution and current DoD legal guidance generally prohibits chaplains from providing RS to the civilian population. However, following certain rare and catastrophic large-scale disasters, local and state capabilities of all types, to include spiritual care, may be overwhelmed. In these situations RSTs may serve as liaison to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) when directed by the JFC.”   So how does the Illinois National Guard provide ministry to its Service Members? We provide ministry through four coverage plans: Unit Coverage, Area Coverage, Individual Coverage and Skills Coverage. Unit Coverage is the RSTs providing ministry or advisement at the Staff, Battalion and Company level or Wing, Group and Flight level. This coverage is Unit specific in focus. Area Coverage allows an RST to focus on a broader scope. The RST is designated a particular geographic area to cover such as north, south, east, west, major cities, population centers or near hospitals. This provides the Service Members Religious Support in a time sensitive manner rather than being Unit driven. Individual Coverage consists of the times when the RST, whether the Chaplain or Chaplain Assistant, comes across a Service Member by happenstance or request. These are typically informal encounters resulting in formal ministry or intervention. Lastly, Skills Coverage is when an RST is selected to minister, intervene or train Service Members based on the RST’s rank, skill level or training mission. This can include activities such as peer-to-peer counseling or mentoring or crisis intervention. It can include class training, for example, such as Strong Bonds (SB) and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST).  Drucker asks us to evaluate these coverage plans using his Organized Abandonment Grid to see if we achieve our expected outcomes.  This grid asks us to review what we do and how we do it on a scale of Purpose: Critical, Significant, Some, Minimal and None as well as a scale of Impact: Definitely, Probably, Maybe and Probably Not. We can review, compare or contrast our coverage plans in terms of ministry purpose to individual impact. I graphed each coverage plan, first, in the mode of our common practices to determine the Purpose-Impact Matrix of how we do what we do.   Unit Coverage is the most Critical ministry role our RSTs perform. Whether on the Land Forces or the Air side of the National Guard, the RSTs have the most impact as they work directly with Units and Service Members. Unit coverage brings ministry of presence and face to face contact with the Service Members on the most consistent basis. When an RST has familiarity with the Units or Service Members they can see trends or times when immediate action is needed, as well as performing follow-up or ensuring follow-up is provided.   This coverage puts the RST in position to engage and inform key leadership where successes are experienced or change needs to take place.  The RST can give Commanders the temperature reading for the morale and welfare of the Unit. Over all, Unit Coverage is where the most bang for the buck occurs. It is Critical with definite results.   Area Coverage is a Significant ministry. This coverage fills the gap when Unit Coverage is hampered by distance or time factors. Another term for Area Coverage could be Availability Coverage since, through coordination with Joint Forces Headquarters (JFHQ), a closer resource may be tasked for ministry in place of the Unit’s RST. Since distance or time factors play such a large role this ministry is Significant and yields definite results as well. Direct intervention and follow-up can be expedient but the ability for preventive care can be limited.  Skills Coverage is the next coverage plan to look at. Skills Coverage has some benefit and purpose. It places an RST into an environment where their skills sets are used to meet a specific need. Whether it is a skill for prevention, intervention or training the right person with the right skill set is assigned the task with lesser consideration to one’s Unit or area. In Drucker’s scale, this coverage plan would rate with Probable impact. Probable is not bad but the impact rests a lot on the Service Members availability, participation and cooperation. In some cases Skills Coverage could be hampered by variety factors we are unable to control or in other cases unable to foresee, i.e.: forthcoming of vital information from a Service Member that could affect the course of action selected.   The fourth coverage plan is Individual Coverage. On Drucker’s scale, Individual Coverage would rate Minimal purpose and Maybe impact. I defined Individual Coverage as “Coverage consists of the times when the RST, whether the Chaplain or Chaplain Assistant, comes across a Service Member by happenstance or request.” As with Skills Coverage, this ministry is important and needs to be acted upon as those times present themselves but this area of coverage is not one at which many resources should be thrown. If an RST is at an event and a Service Member engages that RST, for example, it would be realistic for the RST to engage back but it would be unrealistic for that RST to approach every Service Member offering a ministry opportunity.  Now that I have laid out how we normally conduct ministry, let us look now at how a major natural disaster effects our scheme of ministry. I should point out here that the last major earthquake Illinois had was 5.4 magnitude centered in Dale, IL in 1965. In October 2009, the Mid-American Earthquake Center produced a study “New Madrid Seismic Zone Catastrophic Earthquake Response Planning Project”. This study focused on a projected 7.7 magnitude earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) of which Illinois is part.   “The results indicate that Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri are most severely impacted. Illinois and Kentucky are also impacted, though not as severely as the previous three states. Nearly 715,000 buildings are damaged in the eight-state study region. About 42,000 search and rescue personnel working in 1,500 teams are required to respond to the earthquakes. Damage to valuable infrastructure (essential facilities, transportation and utility lifelines) is substantial in the 140 impacted counties near the rupture zone, including 3,500 damaged bridges and nearly 425,000 breaks and leaks to both local and interstate pipelines. Approximately 2.6 million households are without power after the earthquake. Nearly 86,000 injuries and fatalities result from damage to infrastructure. Nearly 130 hospitals are damaged and most are located in the impacted counties near the rupture zone. There is extensive damage and substantial travel delays in both Memphis, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri, thus hampering search and rescue as well as evacuation. Moreover roughly 15 major bridges are unusable. Three days after the earthquake, 7.2 million people are still displaced and 2 million people seek temporary shelter. Direct economic losses for the eight states total nearly $300 billion, while indirect losses may be at least twice this amount”.   This earthquake scenario forces us to rethink or reimagine our coverage plan using Drucker’s Organized Abandonment Grid and determine if our four coverage plans need to be reprioritized to meet the ministry need during this major natural disaster. The concern I propose is that the Calumet & Illinois Rivers pose a challenge for timely and effective Religious Support to our Service Members, their families and other DoD authorized personnel, most specifically due to bridge failures and flooding. In effect, the Calumet & Illinois Rivers cut the state in half, separating Units from each other and limiting movement of needed resources. On the south side of this obstacle, the Illinois Army National Guard has 26 armories with 17 of them consisting of Medical, Service and Support equipment and personnel. It also has Scott Air Force Base located here. On the north side of the obstacle, the Illinois Army National Guard has 18 armories with 7 of them consisting of Medical, Service and Support equipment and personnel. The north side also has Naval Station Great Lakes and the highest level of population. The City of Chicago is a variable unto itself since the Calumet and Chicago Rivers, as well as the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, splits the city apart. Chicago has 6 armories of which 2 consist of Medical, Service and Support equipment and personnel.   The course of action I purpose for effective Religious Support is to concentrate on Area Coverage first, Individual Coverage second, Skills Coverage third and Unit Coverage last. The Illinois National Guard has approximately 27 Chaplains (CH) and 22 Chaplain Assistants (CA) drawn from the Army and Air Force Guard pool. It has approximately 12 Chaplain Candidates (CC) in the Army Guard pool. Using Drucker’s graph we look at our coverage, asking which plan has the most impact. Area Coverage is Critical since most RSTs may not be able to access their home station due to the bridge failures or flooding. This is what I referred to as organizational abandonment. Both Service Members and RSTs may again be cut off from their Unit or home station. These RSTs would be assigned a geographic area of coverage based off their home of record. The State Chaplain’s Office would maintain a list of RSTs on the north and south side of the obstacle. This list would break down by CH and CA since the RST may be cut off from the team. To meet the greatest impact, CHs and CAs should be prepared to work independently, work in a new geographically accessible RST configuration and even possibly work in a joint, inter-service, RST grouping. The Purpose-Impact Matrix for Area Coverage scales Critical with Definite impact.   In contrast to the previously mentioned Individual Coverage, rating Minimal impact, Individual Coverage becomes Significant. Since geography becomes a challenge due, again, to bridge failures and flooding Individual Coverage is Definitely needed and can run hand in hand with Area Coverage. We need to ask, who is available, at what specific place and when? The RST, CH or CA previously who ran into Service Members by happenstance are now searching out opportunities to minister or offer Religious Support. Another resource needs added to be Individual Coverage. Illinois has a pool of Army, Navy and Air Force Reserve CHs and CAs from which to, as well as the active component Air Force and Navy Religious Support Personnel from Scott Air force Base and Naval Station Great Lakes. Mutual Aid can be acquired from connected states such as Wisconsin and Iowa since they would have experienced limited impact from the NMSZ. The State Chaplain’s Office would maintain a list of these assets.   One variable to all the major disaster coverage plans needs to be noted as well; as our Service Members are caring for their families first, sustaining injuries, having transportation damaged or communications down, our RSTs may be experiencing those same difficulties. This presents a challenge and a plan would need to be devised to mitigate this disruption to Religious Support.   Skills Coverage falls into Some category on Drucker’s Organized Abandonment Grid because we asked ourselves, how many resources should we commit to this crisis? We understand that Psychological First Aid (PFA) and Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) are important but we won’t be holding any classes on this or the above mentioned training during the crisis. We will be actively applying those skills. Some RSTs have trained in PFA and CISM but not all. This takes us back to Individual Coverage. Getting the correct RSTs to places of need with the right skills training will be difficult, however coordinating with air assets and logistic convoys can be manageable. Skills Coverage will have Some influence and will Probably be used.  This takes us lastly to Unit Coverage. I mentioned before organizational abandonment. Due do all the factors laid out above it is unlikely that our RSTs will be actively operating with their organic or assigned Unit. The RST should be prepared to rethink their own operational strategy in the event they cannot connect with their assigned Unit. At this level of crisis Minimal energy should be spent so it May or May Not have impact on effectiveness of Religious Support. Unit Coverage should not be discounted completely but other coverage plans prove out to be more effective using Drucker’s Organized Abandonment Grid.  To answer the question would we do Religious Support the same way after reviewing Drucker’s grid, the answer is no. We need to re-imagine our paradigm. We can ask ourselves a number of important questions coming from the Chaplain Phases in DSCA GTA90-01-020, DSCA Handbook Tactical Level Commander and Staff Toolkit, sections 5.11.1 - 5.11.4.   • During the Assessment and Preparation/ Mobilization phase, before a major natural disaster occurs we can ask ourselves, how will this obstacle, and other various bridges and rivers, effect operations when deploying Religious Support?  • Have we identified, coordinated and planned requirements for Religious Support activities in coordination with Medical Officer, civilian care providers, the Red Cross, and other military and civilian agencies?  • As we deploy resources are we maintaining situational awareness of stress levels of assigned Service Members with the possibility of organizational abandonment; who are our Service Members working for, or with, and how are they being accounted for in service and pay? How is this affecting them?  • Are we prepared to support civil authorities, to conduct crisis intervention or CISM services? Do we know who those trained CHs, CCs and CAs are and where they are located? • Lastly, as we re-deploy or demobilize are we prepared to focus on two tasks?  o Advise the command on indicators, documenting civilian community capabilities to resume normal functioning without military support.  o RSTs conduct re-deployment Religious Support to assigned personnel and their families, focusing on reunion and reintegration issues with families.    In conclusion, our Religious Support concentrates on Service Members, their families and other (DoD) authorized personnel. Getting our resources, whether RSTs, CHs, CCs or CAs to the right spot at the right time will take effort on our part but through working Drucker’s Grid, we have a better understanding of both; our scope of responsibility as providers of Religious Support and how we can better work our priority of effort.          

Religious Support in a Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) Environment

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Religious Support in a Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) Environment

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