NorthCom is geting its own infantry brigade

3rd Infantry’s 1st BCT trains for a new dwell-time mission. Helping ‘people at home’ may become a permanent part of the active Army
By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Sep 8, 2008 6:15:06 EDT

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/

The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.

Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.

It is not the first time an active-duty unit has been tapped to help at home. In August 2005, for example, when Hurricane Katrina unleashed hell in Mississippi and Louisiana, several active-duty units were pulled from various posts and mobilized to those areas.

But this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.

After 1st BCT finishes its dwell-time mission, expectations are that another, as yet unnamed, active-duty brigade will take over and that the mission will be a permanent one.

“Right now, the response force requirement will be an enduring mission. How the chooses to source that and whether or not they continue to assign them to NorthCom, that could change in the future,” said Army Col. Louis Vogler, chief of NorthCom future operations. “Now, the plan is to assign a force every year.”

The command is at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., but the soldiers with 1st BCT, who returned in April after 15 months in Iraq, will operate out of their home post at Fort Stewart, Ga., where they’ll be able to go to school, spend time with their families and train for their new homeland mission as well as the counterinsurgency mission in the war zones.

Stop-loss will not be in effect, so soldiers will be able to leave the Army or move to new assignments during the mission, and the operational tempo will be variable.

Don’t look for any extra time off, though. The at-home mission does not take the place of scheduled combat-zone deployments and will take place during the so-called dwell time a unit gets to reset and regenerate after a deployment.

The 1st of the 3rd is still scheduled to deploy to either Iraq or Afghanistan in early 2010, which means the soldiers will have been home a minimum of 20 months by the time they ship out.

In the meantime, they’ll learn new skills, use some of the ones they acquired in the war zone and more than likely will not be shot at while doing any of it.

They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.

Training for homeland scenarios has already begun at Fort Stewart and includes specialty tasks such as knowing how to use the “jaws of life” to extract a person from a mangled vehicle; extra medical training for a CBRNE incident; and working with U.S. Forestry Service experts on how to go in with chainsaws and cut and clear trees to clear a road or area.

The 1st BCT’s soldiers also will learn how to use “the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded,” 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.



“It’s a new modular package of nonlethal capabilities that they’re fielding. They’ve been using pieces of it in Iraq, but this is the first time that these modules were consolidated and this package fielded, and because of this mission we’re undertaking we were the first to get it.”



The package includes equipment to stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or controlling traffic; shields and batons; and, beanbag bullets.

“I was the first guy in the brigade to get Tasered,” said Cloutier, describing the experience as “your worst muscle cramp ever — times 10 throughout your whole body.

“I’m not a small guy, I weigh 230 pounds ... it put me on my knees in seconds.”

The brigade will not change its name, but the force will be known for the next year as a CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force, or CCMRF (pronounced “sea-smurf”).

“I can’t think of a more noble mission than this,” said Cloutier, who took command in July. “We’ve been all over the world during this time of conflict, but now our mission is to take care of citizens at home ... and depending on where an event occurred, you’re going home to take care of your home town, your loved ones.”

While soldiers’ combat training is applicable, he said, some nuances don’t apply.

“If we go in, we’re going in to help American citizens on American soil, to save lives, provide critical life support, help clear debris, restore normalcy and support whatever local agencies need us to do, so it’s kind of a different role,” said Cloutier, who, as the division operations officer on the last rotation, learned of the homeland mission a few months ago while they were still in Iraq.

Some brigade elements will be on call around the clock, during which time they’ll do their regular marksmanship, gunnery and other deployment training. That’s because the unit will continue to train and reset for the next deployment, even as it serves in its CCMRF mission.

Should personnel be needed at an earthquake in California, for example, all or part of the brigade could be scrambled there, depending on the extent of the need and the specialties involved.

Other branches included
The active Army’s new dwell-time mission is part of a NorthCom and DOD response package.

Active-duty soldiers will be part of a force that includes elements from other military branches and dedicated National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Teams.

A final mission rehearsal exercise is scheduled for mid-September at Fort Stewart and will be run by Joint Task Force Civil Support, a unit based out of Fort Monroe, Va., that will coordinate and evaluate the interservice event.

In addition to 1st BCT, other Army units will take part in the two-week training exercise, including elements of the 1st Medical Brigade out of Fort Hood, Texas, and the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade from Fort Bragg, N.C.

There also will be Air Force engineer and medical units, the Marine Corps Chemical, Biological Initial Reaction Force, a Navy weather team and members of the Defense Logistics Agency and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

One of the things Vogler said they’ll be looking at is communications capabilities between the services.

“It is a concern, and we’re trying to check that and one of the ways we do that is by having these sorts of exercises. Leading up to this, we are going to rehearse and set up some of the communications systems to make sure we have interoperability,” he said.

“I don’t know what America’s overall plan is — I just know that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, there are soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that are standing by to come and help if they’re called,” Cloutier said. “It makes me feel good as an American to know that my country has dedicated a force to come in and help the people at home.”

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Why does this un-nerve me so?

After all, they are only here to "help the American people".

Annex A, section B of Operation Garden Plot defines tax protesters, militia groups, religious cults, and general anti-government dissenters as Disruptive Elements. This calls for the deadly force to be used against any extremist or dissident perpetrating any and all forms of civil disorder.
http://www.uhuh.com/control/garden.htm

:cry:

K & R

Only with wheels instead of the legs.

Oh well, so long as they are only a "Consequence Management Response Force" because a hurricane or earthquake REQUIRE a forceful response!

"They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control"

Doesn't this violate the Posse Comitatus Act?

inside the country's borders, right?

My own representative is still, years after northcom's establishment, blown away that there is so little concern about this.

DU?

A buddy of mine was in the Marine Corps during the 1990's and he and other uniformed troops were used to uproot maui wowwie in Hawaii.

The war on drugs set the precedent that troops can be used in the USA during peace time.

thanks to Congress and Bush. Check out the John Warner Act ('06 or'07, I think. Everything that is needed for a total takeover of the gov't is already in place. All they have to do is declare Martial Law, cancel the elections, suspend Congress. In light of the current economic crisis, natural disasters, impending possible attack on Iran, (insert your own crisis here),etc, I think it is imperative for all of us to understand how Disaster Capitalism is at play here. This economic crisis DID NOT happen in a vacuum or by accident, imo. It's just another piece of the neocon PNAC, NWO plan.

:yoiks:

I think the military is going to be unpleasantly surprised by how frail these things will turn out to be. That dish is a big ol' "break the shit out of me" target. And a tazer can only hit one person at a time, and requires a hand be occupied to operate.

There were days in the not too-distant past where men and women had skin torn from their bodies by high-pressure water, when dogs mangled limbs and batons crushed bones, all for exercising their 1st amendment rights. Through the deaths and injuries and the unpleasantness, they persisted in asserting their place. These days, crowds of thousands break and run from a dozen cops like antelope seeing a lion.

Because it only offers further confirmation (as if we needed any) that our illegitimate Ruling Class views its own citizenry (us) as the real threat.

Our incremental creep toward the police state is obvious, undeniable, and yes, very unnerving.

I can remember seeing the movie RoboCop when it came out in 87' and being unnerved by the killer robot the crooked city administrator was using for security -- it looked to me like our Orwellian future staring me in the face, and now I know that's exactly what it was.

:shrug:

You know us sheeple. The oligarchy can do whatever it wants.

that makes posse comitatus obsolete.

:hi:

I can't track down this article. Does anybody have another link for it for so I can archive it in the GuvWurld News Archive?

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/">LINK

I don't know why the link in the OP doesn't work.

They have a piece on this too.

note 2nd paragraph.........


"There is no credible, specific intelligence suggesting an imminent threat to the homeland at this time. Still, we are closely assessing potential threats and response planning leading into and following the electoral process in 2008 to 2009.

Heightened coordination and planning among intelligence community and law enforcement partners is being undertaken solely out of an abundance of caution, and focuses on preventive and preparedness measures for the transition period between administrations."

http://www.dhs.gov/xinfoshare/programs/Copy_of_press_release_0046.shtm

but not quite like THIS one.

People would like the Humanitarian Division. It would be set up quite a bit different from a regular combat division--a brigade would consist of a Service and Supply battalion and two engineer battalions, one of which was a structural engineering battalion, and there'd be a whole brigade of Military Police.

This Humanitarian Brigade seems to be set up to bust heads.

...and remove them by their throats yet?

Or do we continue playing this preposterous and suicidal game of pretend?

Thanks for posting, Explorer.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Operation Garden PlotIt took a little more than three years to obtain a full copy of Operation Garden Plot from the U.S. Government, and was done so under the freedom of ...
www.uhuh.com/control/garden.htm

Operation Garden Plot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaOperation Garden Plot is a general U.S. Army and National Guard plan to respond to major domestic civil disturbances within the United States. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Garden_Plot

. GENERAL Opposition forces or groups may attempt to gain knowledge of this plan and 'use that knowledge to prevent or degrade the effectiveness of the actions outlined in this plan. In order to protect operations undertaken to accomplish the mission, it is necessary to control sources of information that can be exploited by those opposition forces or groups.

http://www.uhuh.com/control/garden.htm

If any civil disturbance by a resistance group, religious organization, or other persons considered to be non-conformist takes place, under Appendix 3 to Annex B of Plan 55-2 hereby gives all Federal forces total power over the situation if local and state authorities cannot put down said dissenters.

http://www.uhuh.com/control/garden.htm

Holy bat shit.

And just because you live out in the suburbs and the police don't invade your poetry slam doesn't mean it isn't.

Are we expected to salute our new camoflogued overlords....uh..er..helpers?

This is one of the most important posts I've seen on DU. Thank you. Everyone needs to READ & HEED this warning. It is frightening in it's implications in regard to police state, martial law. When Bush said that it would be easier if we were a dictatorship as long as he was the dictator, he WASN'T KIDDING. Contrary to popular belief, he is not a fool, he just plays one on TV. He is a devious, cunning sociopath, who has duped the entire nation. We treat him like the village idiot, thereby dismissing him as stupidly incompetent, but while we entertained ourselves making him the butt of the national joke, he was busy behind the curtain stealing that same nation. EVERYTHING, and I do mean EVERYTHING, is now in place for a complete takeover of this country. The Constitution and Bill of Rights have been shredded, laws enacted or overturned, signing statements and Executive Orders in place, Congress co-opted, military deployed out of the country and in disarray, new crowd control weapons ready to go, detention (re-education) camps ready for occupation, MSM completely muzzled,etc. In addition they have run an incredibly successful psych-ops program to dumb down the sheeple. I believe the arrests of the press and protesters at the RNC convention as well as the gov't interference with the media trying to report the aftermath of hurricane Ike is all part of an elaborate orchestration to desensitize the public to what's coming. Like boiling frogs-start them out in cold water, then gradually increase the temp so the frog won't jump out of the pot until it's too late. WE NEED TO WAKE UP!:grr:

These guys are front line Iraq troops. Stone cold killers. You CANNOT put them in a peaceful civilian setting and expect them to be able to adjust after years of being in a hot zone. They'll be on a hair trigger in whatever situation they're put into and bad things will happen.

I have a bro who has a few acres shy of 500 that maybe a bunch of us could homestead on, dig in and fight the good fight from. I'm sure he'd join in.

But it would probably be instantly attacked by predator drones.

:hi: