USAG-KA Town Halls Answer Community Questions

“Communication; open and candid dialog, is critical to a good partnership,” mentioned Col. Tom Pugsley, U.S. Army Garrison-Kwajalein Atoll commander just lately on the Kwajalein group city corridor assembly April 20 on the Island Memorial Chapel. “That’s how groups are fashioned and it’s a important enabler for fulfillment of the mission.

“Everything comes down to success of the mission here on Kwaj, and it takes everyone working together to get after that. So, any issues that we have that are allowed to fester and go unanswered just causes friction in the community.”

On April 19 and 20, USAG-KA management carried out city halls on Roi-Namur and Kwajalein for the group members to share their considerations, questions and compliments in an open discussion board.

Pugsley opened each city halls by offering data on a number of matters of curiosity, equivalent to COVID-19, quarantine, transition, island infrastructure and the Army local weather technique.

COVID border instances. “This is what quarantine is for,” mentioned Pugsley. “It is to catch positive cases in quarantine, to see them through recovery and then release them back into the general population, minimizing chances of community spread.”

Quarantine. Pugsley added that nobody recommends pre-travel quarantine.

“We fought hard to get that reduced to three days and that is what the RMI is doing,” he mentioned, including that every one vacationers inbound to the Marshall Islands are at the moment required to finish 5 day’s quarantine in Hawaii.”

Pugsley mentioned the plan shifting ahead was at all times to make gradual reductions in quarantine to make sure the suitable processes are in place to make sure security.

“The very last thing we wish from the garrison’s perspective is to induce COVID-19 into the nation. In all chance, even when the RMI reduces to zero days in Hono, we are going to slowly part in a discount to about three days, possibly two.

“With that being said, if we do go to zero days in Hawaii, United Airlines will probably open up to three flights a week. We’re going to have to limit on which flights will be available to people coming to Kwaj due to managing the medical, testing and the quarantine piece. This will help us to maintain control.”

The RMI authorities will current plans for quarantine discount to the Nitijela, or RMI congress, mentioned Pugsley. The preliminary plan is to scale back in two-day increments. It can be anticipated that quarantine could also be decreased from 14 to 12 days over the following six weeks.

He imparted that RMI Chief Secretary Kino Kabua had mentioned throughout an April assembly on Majuro that she believed by July, the RMI can be right down to zero days’ Hawaii quarantine and 10 days’ quarantine on Kwajalein.

“So that is what we are looking at—mid- to late-summer—if everything goes right,” Pugsley mentioned.

Transition. At the time of the city corridor, Vectrus was per week away from assuming the bottom operations companies contract.

“Vectrus has been very good at minimizing the impact to the Marshallese workforce,” Pugsley mentioned.

Infrastructure and gear. The garrison has at the moment been working at decreased capability with out helicopters for a number of weeks. This has had some plact on mission assist actions.

“We’ve been able to work around this for the most part, but that just goes to show how hard it is to get critical equipment and expertise on island to fix our stuff,” Pugsley mentioned. “Most of the infrastructure on the island in some level of disrepair. We are putting a lot of effort into it. We have a team on island that is going to do a complete assessment of all the island’s critical infrastructure, and that is going to set a foundational baseline for where we are. It will help better frame the decision for future resources.”

Climate Change. “The Army takes climate change seriously,” Pugsley mentioned. “A brand new set of necessities was just lately launched to which considerably alter how Kwajalein will conduct enterprise over the following 20 years.

“A congressman brought up Kwajalein by name as an exemplar where climate change needs to be addressed at the Department of Defense-level to mitigate and plan for the impending changes the climate is going to have on the national security of the U.S. That’s a lot of attention. With attention comes a lot more oversight, consideration and hard looks at how we do business. We’ve asked the contractors—the teams—to make sure that we are doing our best to provide oversight, and that we’re maximizing every dollar of the taxpayers’ money that we use to go into this installation. Hopefully, we’ll see a lot of goodness coming out of that in the next couple years.”

Questions

1) What is occurring with Surfway privileges for BQ residents?

We want to perform a little research to determine what we’re legally approved to do, what the Army and the DoD will enable, after which the authorized justification for both manner.

As of now, nothing goes to alter. We are going to permit folks to make use of the Surfway till we get a decision on what our justification might be.

2) Will there be fireworks for 4th of July?

USAG-KA is figuring out the feasibility of utilizing a brand new vendor for fireworks.

3) Departing Kwajalein for the summer time.

For the previous couple of months, incoming tranches haven’t been full. We are operating at 25 % full. Please be conscientious when planning your return flight to not all arrive again right here the week earlier than college.

Work along with your human sources personnel, as they’re those allocating you to a tranche. If it’s important to divert your plans to maximise your likelihood to get again on the island, I’d extremely advocate doing so. While it’s fairly simple to get you again now, you need to think about your capability to return on time.”

4) What is the standing of house accessible journey?

“Full servicing on ATI flights might be restored by May 13. Space accessible journey is allowed for Department of Defense civilians to incorporate non-appropriated fund and U.S. Department of Defense civilian workers with out transportation agreements and their dependents whereas in atypical go away standing.

Military and DoD civilians and their households can fly between Kwajalein and Hawaii for respite, specialty medical appointments, private enterprise and morale and recreation functions.

Keep in thoughts that to return to Kwajalein vacationers should nonetheless be positioned on a tranche by human sources personnel and should quarantine in Hawaii which is at the moment 5 days and two weeks on Kwajalein.”

5) Do we nonetheless should put on masks on United Airlines?

United Airlines dropped their masks mandate for flights on April 20 for home flights solely. UA maintains a masks mandate within the Kwajalein air terminal and aboard their plane to Guam and Hawaii.

6) When will the veterinarian and optometrist arrive on island?

The veterinarian is scheduled to reach in late May or early June. A TDY optometrist will arrive in July. Both are scheduled to be on island for 2 weeks. All island residents are inspired to contact the Kwajalein Hospital to be placed on a waitlist for appointments.

From Command Sgt. Maj. Ismael Ortega:

“In order for the transition to be successful, and for this island to be successful, the entire team needs to be rowing in the same direction. There are a lot of things that LOGCAP does for the garrison and there are a lot of things the garrison does for LOGCAP. Without each other, and with the rest of the tenants, the island is not successful. It will take everyone in this community to make this the best in the Marshall Islands. We have a perfect opportunity to start fresh, and take advantage of the eyes coming in, to set conditions and to lead us going forward.”

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