experience they needed for the job. Lt. Cmdr. Mike Gulla, a reservist from Sector Northern New England in Portland, Maine, normally manages interventional radiology for Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston. He was recalled to work at the Vermont Department of Health on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “I’ve been in healthcare my whole career,” said Gulla. “When this covid stuff came around, they were looking for a planning section chief, and my hospital already had people working from home. I saw I could do some good here.” Gulla, who was qualified as both a planning section chief and a liaison officer, took a 30-day contract in April to help Vermont adapt to the ICS structure in order to support the state’s response to the coronavirus. He saw early on that applying a heavy ICS strategy would not help the state response. “Rigid roles weren’t serving us,” said Gulla, “We needed a hybrid mode; we needed to bring the health department along and get them comfortable with the ICS structure, rather than falling back on their titles from their normal jobs.” Gulla served as both the planning section chief and as an ICS mentor to the incident leaders, helping to keep relationships straight and communication lines clear as they revised their emergency plans and figured out how to source supplies as a smaller state. He said that although the lines were blurred between the organization’s traditional day-to-day roles and those they’d assumed when they became part of the response, by the end of the first week, the tension began to dissipate. “You saw the stress ease, burdens got lighter and morale got better,” he said. “They settled into their roles as a team, and the people of Vermont have benefitted.” The 6-foot-4 Gulla has the laugh of a person who manages stress easily, partly due to his 25 years as an on-call firefighter for his hometown. He said his diverse background as a reservist (a stint in a PSU, time deployed to Iraq, and work at two sectors) helped him adapt to the Vermont response, providing small Lt. Cmdr. Mike Gulla, a reservist from Sector Northern New England in Portland, Maine, in front of a Burlington, Vt., firetruck. Gulla was recalled to work at the Vermont Department of Health on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. strategy alterations to a team of people who already have the internal drive to help their state. “It feels nice to implement what you’ve always trained on,” he said. “First you learn, then you do, then you teach. That’s what I did here, and when I teach ICS, this is going to be one of my examples on how you have to stay flexible to achieve mission success.” Port Security Unit 311 also adapted their traditional training to support the coronavirus response. The unit, located at Base Los Angeles/Long Beach in San Pedro, Calif., is directly across from a minimum-security state correctional facility. Lt. Cmdr. Todd Smith, the logistics officer for PSU 311, said they received a request for support from the correctional facility for a tent city because they were experiencing trouble spacing out the occupants. The PSU brought in 14 reservists, as well as three full time members from the unit, to set up 10 tents and the accompanying equipment to support (air conditioners, generators, cots, etc.). “It was a great operation for us,” said Smith, who said that due to the coronavirus, the unit had to cancel March drills and restructure its drill weekends for April, and May. Though it was a little more difficult putting up tents while wearing masks, the reservists enjoyed the camaraderie. “That’s what I love about this unit—everyone was working together, laughing, joking, doing what we came to do,” said Smith. He said it was also what the unit trains for, no matter if it’s halfway around the world, or in this case, just across the street. “Part of our mission is to be self- sufficient as we deploy anywhere in the world in 96 hours. This was a great opportunity to do that. The members were glad to contribute, and it helps us better prepare for future missions.” Lt. Cmdr. Joshua Daubenspeck, a Members of PSU 311 stand in front of two of the 10 tents they constructed in response to a call for assistance from a minimal-security state facility located across the street from the unit. reservist from District 11, the southwest corner of the U.S., said Issue 2 • 2020 � RESERVIST 21
