OCTOBER 2004

 

 

LEARNING MORE ABOUT OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM

 

ROBERT L. SHANK, JR.

Deputy Commander

 

Bob Shank Jr. is an Ohio licensed Funeral Director. Since 1999, he has been the Marketing Specialist for the Ohio Funeral Directors Association, in Columbus, Ohio. For a number of years prior to that, Bob was the Executive Vice President and General Manager at WSN Company, in Perrysburg, Ohio.

                                           

Bob is a 1985 graduate of Perrysburg High School.  In 1990, he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Ohio State University, where he majored in Information Resources, and minored in Accounting.

 

Bob has been a DMORT Region V team member since 1992. His enthusiasm, dedication, and strong leadership qualities influenced his superiors to appoint him Region V Deputy Commander in 1998. In the same year, Bob joined the DPMU (Disaster Portable Morgue Unit) team, where he is currently an active participant. Bob also contributes to the team as a trainer and educator: since 2000, Bob has been a member of the NDMS Functional Working Group on Training and Education.

 

Bob has participated in numerous deployments: Comair Flight 3272 (Monroe, Michigan 1997), Korean Air Flight 301 (Guam 1997), Amtrak Train Crash (Bourbonnais, Illinois 1999), Oklahoma City Tornadoes (Oklahoma City 1999), Hurricane Floyd (Tarboro, North Carolina 1999), Egypt Air Crash, (Providence, Rhode Island 1999), Alaska Air Flight 261 (Ventura, California 2000), Executive Air Crash (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 2000), World Trade Center Tragedy (New York City, New York 2001), Crematory Disaster (Noble, Georgia 2002), and US Air Flight 5481 (Charlotte, North Carolina 2003). On all of these missions, Bob was part of the team that was  responsible for the Information Resources Area. His duties included antemortem and postmortem data collection, analysis of collected data for presumptive identifications, and dissemination of compiled data to the appropriate entities. Bob assisted Don Bloom in the development of the Victim Identification Program (VIP), which has been adopted by DMORT as the primary database, used to compare antemortem and postmortem information, assisting in identifications and providing needed mission reporting.

 

Bob attributes his progressions and accomplishments and successes to his entire family, who have supported DMORT for many years and in many ways! Bob has been married to his high school sweetheart and fellow Ohio State alumna – Tonya – for twelve years. They currently reside in Perrysburg, Ohio, with their two children: Morgan (age 9) and Robert (age 6). When he is not at work or preoccupied with DMORT business, Bob enjoys sailing - a hobby that he has enjoyed for over 30 years and shares with Tonya. He also inspired others to appreciate the sport by becoming a USYRU Level II Sailing Instructor for several years.

 

Region V is fortunate to have Bob on their leadership team!

 

 

 

 

 

THE UNIFORMED SERVICES EMPLOYMENT

AND RE-EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS ACT (USERRA)

        The following was adapted from the Region VII website.

 

 

The Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) was enacted in October 1994, and it was significantly updated in both 1996 and 1998. USERRA provides re-employment protection and other benefits for veterans and employees, who perform military service. USERRA now applies to DMORT personnel.

 

In order to qualify for re-employment rights following a period of service in the uniformed services, a military member must meet five eligibility criteria:

 

  1. You must have held a civilian job.
  2. You must have informed your employer that you were leaving the job for service in the uniformed services.
  3. The period of service must not have exceeded five years.
  4. You must have been released from service under “honorable conditions.”
  5. You must have reported back to your civilian employer in a timely manner, or have submitted a timely application for re-employment.

 

DMORT personnel rights under USERRA apply during pre-deployment, deployment, or authorized training. Those applicable are eligible for all benefits, provided by the employer. Advanced notice for your employer is advised, and you must return to work in a timely manner after deployment.

 

 NOTICE

 

If you DO NOT currently have DMORT uniforms, you are not considered deployable.

For many years, Bubba Stevens has done our team a great service by handling DMART for our DMORT supplies. As a team, we should be thankful that he is able to help us with our DMORT attire. 

Everyone should keep in mind that Bubba is also a team member; therefore, he may be deployed at any time, like the rest of the team. A disaster is not the time to hastily be ordering uniforms, shirts, hats, etc. THESE ITEMS SHOULD HAVE BEEN PURCHASED WELL BEFORE A POTENTIAL DEPLOYMENT.

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE FROM FORT GILLEM, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

 

Since August 18, the FEMA Territorial Logistics Center located at Ft. Gillem, Georgia has been a 24-7 operation.  This location stores and ships items, such as tents, generators, tables, computers, water, cots, blankets, plastic sheeting for roofs, manufactured homes and travel trailers, and heater meals (similar to military ready to eat (MRE).  There are more than one million heater meals at the warehouse.  The center's regular staff of ten has increased to approximately thirty, some of whom are NDMS and others local hires.  This location has processed 131 manufactured homes for larger families, and 1,019 travel trailers.  When items are no longer needed in the disaster area, they are returned, cleaned, refurbished, and stored until needed again.  Ft. Gillem is one of only eight FEMA logistic support centers in the United States.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE FROM GULF BREEZE, FLORIDA

 

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan (September 2004), the FEMA Mobile Disaster Recovery Center (MDRC) has been working from Gulf Breeze, Florida – located on the extreme west end of the Florida panhandle, where the hurricane reached landfall. The MDRC is a satellite communications center, complete with computer and telephone access; it is mobilized to wherever communication access has been destroyed. At this location, victims are able to report their losses to FEMA, and contact family members outside of the devastated area about their current status.

DMORT Regions participating at Gulf Breeze, include IV, V, VII, and IX.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW DEPLOYMENT PROCEDURE

Sue Atwood

Administrative Officer

 

As of September 20, 2004, team members will have 24 hours from the time they are activated to a deployment to notify their Administrative Officer. This notification process must also be followed at the end of the deployment. This procedure allows the leadership team to maintain and update ongoing deployment rosters.

 

A simple e-mail will suffice, including:

 

1)      Your Name

2)      Date of Departure for Deployment

3)      Deployment Location

4)      Expected Date of Return

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ONLINE TRAINING ANNOUNCEMENT

Mike Gedert

Training Officer

 

The August 31st deadline for completing the DMORT/DMAT Online Training Modules has past, and we are now quickly approaching the end of September.  Although we have made significant progress towards raising our team’s completion percentage (currently at 66%), there are still a number of members who either have not completed the modules, or have not even started the training. 

 

Our leadership team has been extremely flexible in allowing as much time as possible for our members to complete the training. Unfortunately, the time has come for us to enforce some policies, which we were hoping to avoid:

 

1)      If you have completed the training, you are in good standing.  Thank you very much for your effort.

2)      If you have started, but have not completed the training, you will not be allowed on an availability list for deployment, until the training is completed.

3)      If you have not even started the training, you are faced with two options:

 

A)    Get started IMMEDIATELY; do not consider yourself available for deployment, until the training is completed.

B)     Consider turning in your FEMA ID card, in order for our team to accommodate a new member to join. You WILL NOT be deployed, if you have not started the training.

 

And for advanced warning, NDMS has put together two additional online training courses that will require approximately 5-6 hours to complete.  These two courses must be completed within the next fiscal year.  As soon as they become available, I will inform the team.

 

There are over 100 applications for DMORT Region V membership; however, they have not been processed, due to the current number of members already on the team.  These applicants are anxious to be part of this team, and they are willing to fulfill our requirements.  With this in mind, the Region V leadership will take action on our team’s “non-participants,” in the near future. 

 

We are all privileged to be part of this team.  That privilege cannot be taken for granted, or it will be lost.  Please do your part:  for yourself and for the team!

 

Next Month in the “Voice of V”

 

Learning More about Our Leadership Team

Hurricane Updates

Team Readiness

And More!