Guest Post by Captain Mike Mohn, Chief, Office of Contingency Exercises (CG-535)
With hurricane season right around the corner, Coast Guard commands across the nation will soon be reviewing and readying their response plans. Part of that cycle will be a series of exercises that will ensure the Coast Guard is in fighting trim. In support of our overall preparedness goals, the Coast Guard has undertaken an effort to improve its corps of exercise professionals. The Coast Guard recently graduated its 115th federally-certified Master Exercise Practitioner as a result of a growing partnership with FEMA's Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburg, Maryland. The Coast Guard is now the 2nd leading federal agency in number of graduates (Customs & Border Protection is 1st).
For the past two years the Office of Contingency Exercises (CG-535) has sponsored special convenings of the Master Exercise Practitioner Program (MEPP) course to raise the proficiency of Coast Guard Preparedness Staff nationwide. The MEPP program is the senior-most course offered by the federal government for the design and conduct of exercises. The Coast Guard and the network of port communities we serve benefit from having this expert cadre distributed throughout the operational Coast Guard. MEPP skills complement the various Coast Guard and DoD preparedness courses taken by our planning and exercise staffs. The combined competencies guide our unit commands to more meaningful exercises that improve preparedness for All Threats - All Hazards.
So, what does a MEPP course entail? Through a comprehensive series of three one-week sessions (that include professional demonstrations in between), the MEPP students develop hands-on expertise in multiyear exercise program management, design and conduct of tabletop, functional, and full scale exercises. The MEPP course is based on the DHS Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP), which provides a common approach for all levels of government. Students receive a healthy understanding of the many emergency management disciplines of federal, state, and local agencies that have key roles during incident responses. The MEPP course is taught by FEMA at either the Emergency Management Institute or the Center for Domestic Preparedness (Anniston, AL). As Coast Guard graduate numbers increased, subsequent courses included Coast Guard MEPP graduates as instructors, working in tandem with FEMA instructors, to tailor the curriculum to CG-specific examples and topics.
The Coast Guard exercise program plans to continue this beneficial partnership with FEMA, with the goal of providing each of our major field commands (Sectors, Districts and Areas) with a certified Practitioner. Additionally, all Exercise Support Team professionals will be sent to this course of instruction. To date, we are 95% complete in fulfilling that goal. Additionally, we will continue to pursue opportunities for our field commands to assist local agency partners obtain seats in MEPP to increase our interoperability, interagency coordination, and collective contingency preparedness.
