Page 2 - Fort Irwin High Desert Warrior, April 2022

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Community
High Desert Warrior April 2022
www.aerotechnews.com/ntcfortirwin
WHO WE ARE
Brig. Gen. Curtis Taylor
Commanding General
Command Sgt. Maj. Brian D. Haydt
Post CSM
Col. Jason A. Clarke
Garrison Commander
Command Sgt. Maj. Justin Larson
Garrison CSM
Renita Wickes
Public Affairs Director
High Desert Warrior Staff
Abraam Dawoud, Editor 760-380-3303
Jason Miller, Staff Writer/Photographer (760) 380-3073
David Dupree, Staff Writer/Photographer (760) 380-8917
Casey Slusser, Staff Writer/Photographer (760) 380-3076
Aerotech News Emma Uribe, Graphic Designer
HIGH DESERT WARRIOR
High Desert Warrior, a civilian enterprise newspaper, is an authorized publication for members of the United States Army and Fort Irwin community. Contents of this newspaper are not necessarily official view of, or endorsed by, the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, Department of the Army or Fort Irwin and the National Training Center. High Desert Warrior is prepared weekly by the Public Affairs Office, National Training Center and Fort Irwin, P.O. Box 105067, Fort Irwin, CA, 92310-5067. Telephone: 380-4511 or DSN 470-4511. FAX: 380-3075.
High Desert Warrior is a digital publication, distributed monthly on Facebook, www.facebook.com/HighDesertWarrior/ as well as emailed to base personnel It is produced at Aerotech News and Review, (661) 945-5634.
Aerotech News and Review is a private firm in no way connected with the Department of the Army and is responsible for the commercial advertising found in this publication. Everything advertised in this publication will be made available for purchase, use or patronage without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national orientation, age, marital status, physical handicap or political affiliation of the purchaser, user or patron. A confirmed violation of this policy of equal opportunity by an advertiser will result in refusal to print advertising from that source. The appearance of advertisements in this publication does not constitute an endorsement by the Department of the Army of the products or services advertised.
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NEWSPAPER AWARDS
2nd Place, 2017 U.S. Army IMCOM
Newspaper Competition — Feature Photograph
Honorable Mention, 2009 U.S. Army IMCOM-West
Newspaper Competition — Tabloid category
3rd Place, 2008 Dept. of the Army
Maj. Gen. Keith L. Ware Newspaper Competition — Tabloid Category
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Send your questions, suggestions, or problems to: 1. Your chain of command
2. ICE (Interactive Customer Evaluation)
3. CG’s Hotline: 380-5463
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NTC & Fort Irwin was selected to pilot the Fusion Directorate here is what it means
Opinion Piece by
Lt. Col. Rahsaan Jackson
Every day and night, the Fort Irwin military community does its part to help our friendly forces win the first battle of the next war, and dominate on the fields of battle. Whether on the front lines, or in a support capacity, we all have our parts to play. In the Human domain, the fight to purge Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment from the ranks is a continuous operation, against a persistent adversary. The Sexual Harassment/ Assault Response (SHARP) Offices across the Army have worked tirelessly to deliver professional advocacy, emotional support, unit refresher training, and case management for the formations since the inception. Despite the heroic efforts by our first responders, mistakes were being made, and the Report of The Fort Hood Independent Review Committee highlighted some of the systemic challenges which required new ways of thinking in order to achieve progress. Just as weapons evolved, from clubs and stones to muskets and M4s; organizations too must also evolve in order to meet the needs of their current operational environment.
According to current figures Fort Irwin, California, has a resident population of approxi- mately 8,800 residents, and a daily population (which includes visitors, non-resident employees, contractors, rotational units etc.) of up to 29,000 people. For the past four years, Fort Irwin aver- ages around 27 reports of Sexual Assault and seven reports of Sex- ual Harassment per year. Sexual Assault and Sexual harassment are not only unacceptable and authorized, but these intolerable violations are detrimental to the Soldiers, Civilians, and mission of this installation.
Sexual assault spans a wide array of actions ranging from unwanted touching to forcible rape. For comparison purposes in 2019 the city of Barstow, California had reported that 0.04 percent of the population of being raped while Dartmouth College, an Ivy League Univer-
sity of a similar population size had reported that 0.50 percent of its student body , compared to 0.007 percent at Ft. Irwin during the same period. These statistics alone are not the only metric, Sexual misconduct is historically an under-reported offense due to the highly invasive nature of the event. This combined with the sometimes antagonistic societal attitudes towards victims, cre- ates a reluctance to report these types of incidents. Combating these cultural/societal challenges while providing premier care for our clients in a safe and welcom- ing atmosphere are among the primary aims of the directorate.
To address the issues high- lighted in the Fort Hood In- dependent Review Committee, the Army created the Fusion Directorate concept. In addition to the site at Fort Irwin, there are Fusion Directorates at the fol- lowing locations: Aberdeen Prov- ing Ground, Fort Bragg, Fort Sill, Schofield Barracks, and a virtual model is operating out of Fort Dix. Fusion Directorates are essentially enhanced SHARP of- fices with added capabilities and capacities to facilitate accessibil- ity, efficiency, confidentiality, multi-disciplinary collaboration as well prevention, and response. Each pilot location is given flex- ibility to adapt their operations to support their respective com- munity needs.
This newly established direc- torate distinguishes itself from the tradition SHARP program
model in many ways. First and foremost is the appointment of a senior officer who reports directly to the Senior Mission Commander, this insulates the mission from command influ- ences at the Brigade echelon, while also emphasizing the im- portance of the program. Sec- ondly, the Fusion Directorate has a consolidated staff, all of whom are located in Bldg. 287. The building serves as the initial rally point for Investigative, legal, and medical support in order to maximize efficiency. To meet the needs of our clients the entire staff, passed through extensive background checks, are credentialed under the DoD Sexual Assault Advocate Certifi- cation Program, and are Master Resilience Trainer (level 1) certi- fied. This allows our professions in dealing with clients during their darkest hours, as well as to resist burnout.
In addition to client response services the Fusion Director- ate also has a classroom, and SHARP Academy Master In- structors to enable professional training, to not only local units, leaders, but also regional part- ners, and personnel on TDY. The training capabilities are not limited to bldg. 287, the FD has scalable packages to deliver educational productions to the Company Commanders, First Sergeants Corse, Installation newcomers briefing or even plug into Brigade and below unit training during STX Lanes, and
Foundational Training Days. The analytics function is new this year, and it allows our teams to study the operation environ- ment for trends, best practices, or vulnerabilities to allow leader- ship to asses make policy, direct resources, and streamline the delivery of effects across forma-
tions in a unified fashion.
If patterns/trends are deter- mined to pose a threat to the forces, we can quickly push the information to the appropriate staff/ Leader echelon for deliber- ate action. Our Staff, on order, can now coordinate activities across tenant units or Rotational Training Units (RTU) alike to enhance public safety, and
confidence.
To the naked eye, the Fusion
Directorate will look very much like a traditional SHARP of- fice, and our clients and tenant units may not even know the difference; however it’s not the building that makes the church, it’s the congregation...it’s the people. The behind the scenes efforts in coordination and syn- chronization of services, com- bined with evolutions in training and education should maintain confidentiality, efficiency, trans- parency, and accessibility. Our team committed to the mission, and we encourage anyone who wants to learn more about Fu- sion to come us visit Bldg. 287.
For more information go to home.army.mil/irwin