his district received a request from FEMA for a liaison officer to the State of California and the FEMA Region IX Regional Response Coordination Center (RRCC) in Oakland, Calif. Since early March 2020, Daubenspeck and two other reserve officers, Lt. Cmdrs. Steve Neal and Rob Le Monde, were mobilized to fill the emergency preparedness liaison officer (EPLO) role. They each served as the principal Coast Guard liaison to FEMA and other federal and state organizations to support the COVID-19 response across FEMA Region IX (California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands). They coordinated Coast Guard resources, contributions and support for the response to the global pandemic, focusing on the preservation of the Maritime Transportation System across California and the Pacific Islands. "I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside a very diverse group of emergency management professionals from across all levels of government, said Daubenspeck. “[It’s] been a great opportunity to strengthen previously existing working relationships and highlight the Coast Guard's critical partnerships within DHS and beyond." In February, Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Epperson joined the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), a joint command charted to accelerate DoD’s adoption and integration of artificial intelligence. The command had requested a Coast Guardsman to lead a newly formed search and rescue line of effort within the Humanitarian Aid / Disaster Relief (HADR) National Mission Initiative (NMI). Epperson, a former Coast Guard program analyst and a civilian program manager of the U.S. Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking (SARSAT) program, jumped at the opportunity to leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve SAR. Two weeks into his assignment, the pandemic became front and center for the JAIC. By mid-March, the JAIC had formed a cross function team, Project Salus, to provide predictive analytics to U.S. Northern Command, the National Guard, and FEMA. Epperson previously served as a liaison to the National Response Coordination Center, and leveraged this broad understanding of how large complex incidents are managed to serve as the user engagement with NORTHCOM and the NGB. “I was on a strike team, so I have some experience working under the national response framework,” said Epperson, whose normal reserve billet is at the Innovation Program at Coast Guard Headquarters. “It’s good to have that background in interagency work, understanding the nuances of how FEMA uses mission assignment, how they leverage DoD for specific tasks, and how we fit into that.” His piece of Project Salus was user engagement—getting DoD members in the field to use the programs to help DoD support civil authorities. Epperson traveled to Kansas to work with governor’s office to capture emerging information requirements to assist their State response efforts. This led to working with the 22 RESERVIST � Issue 2 • 2020 national food banks and food subsistence programs to identify where food shortages would exist among the most vulnerable populations, one of models developed by his team. “Our task was to predict which areas would be hit harder, specifically what areas would experience shortfalls of resources, and where higher rates of infection or unemployment might exist,” said Epperson. “Outreach to the larger retailers and grocery stores led our team to procuring retail data sources from a handful of companies that capture point of sale transactions across the U.S.” The Project Salus team worked with these sources to address chronic food shortages at food banks and pantries across America. They worked with AI data scientists to continuously develop predictive models to assist decision makers on issues, including impacts to nursing homes projections, DoD supply chain vulnerability, and virus progression down to the zip code level. He also said his command is working with the U.S. Indo- Pacific Command to adapt their models to fit the needs of foreign partners. After several months focused on the pandemic, Epperson and many of his colleagues shifted some focus back to their normal work, but they’re keeping one eye on their COVID-19 work. “I’ll be doing both projects for the foreseeable future,” he said. YELLOW RIBBON REINTEGRATION PROGRAM: REDEFINING "DEPLOYMENT" IN THE AGE OF COVID In about a third of the deployments in support of the pandemic, members are separated from their families for more than six months. Those are the deployments that come with the added benefit and support of the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program. “We normally support reservists and families who are experiencing deployment [outside the country] for more than 90 days,” said the Coast Guard’s YRRP coordinator Lt. Cmdr. Veronica McCusker. “Typically, that means port security units, but now, we’re talking about those who responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.” McCusker and her team of four host in-person, two-day seminar-style events for PSUs. With the restrictions on travel and contact, McCusker, who is, herself, a reservist on ADOS, transformed her program into a virtual one, bringing the speakers and information to the members via teleconference and social media groups. “It’s the first time the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program has ever been applied to domestic deployments,” she said. “It’s all the same information; it’s just virtual.” The program includes three required classes and 15 optional courses on subjects like parenting at a distance, communications, and stress management. The YRRP hosted three live meetings via teleconference with guest speakers from the work life, chaplain, command master chief and ombudsmen programs. McCusker reiterated the importance of preparing for separation so families don’t feel left on their own, and members don’t feel awkward reentering civilian life. “Our main goal is increasing the resiliency of the Reserve through supporting them and their families during the deployment process,” said McCusker. “It’s about targeting what they need and what their families need so they can feel like they can concentrate on their mission.” �
