Navy.mil Home Page
NAF Misawa's Emergency Management Team Recognized for Disaster Preparedness Month Efforts
MISAWA, Japan (NNS) -- Naval Air Facility (NAF) Misawa's Emergency Management (EM) Team was recognized for their outstanding performance during 2014's National Preparedness Month Jan. 8.
Capt. Keith Henry, commanding officer of NAF Misawa, read a letter from Eric Rosenbach, the Assistant Secretary of Defense, praising the team's efforts made to increase disaster and emergency preparedness awareness.
NAF's EM Team was one of 12 EM teams recognized Navy-wide for their creative and engaging initiatives.
"Your installation played a crucial role in the unprecedented level of DoD engagement and outreach to ensure our Service members, civilians, and installations take action to prepare for the types of emergencies they may encounter," wrote Rosenbach.
As soon as the EM Team's office received the order they began planning activities and exploring different venues that could be used to efficiently educate Service members and civilians in Misawa.
NAF's EM Team utilized mass media by speaking about the importance of disaster and emergency preparedness on Navy Misawa's 'Captain's Call' live radio show and publishing the information on social media sites.
The team also set up a table at the base Army & Air Force Exchange Service store where they handed out educational pamphlets and played videos showing how fast our lives could be devastated by disasters and emergencies caused by hurricanes, flooding, volcanoes, tornadoes, wild fires, and terrorist attacks.
Service members and civilians were also educated on the importance of having an emergency kit and a plan to reconnect with family and command members after a tragedy.
The team consisted of Aviation Maintenance Administrationman 1st Class Xiaojie Huang, Damage Controlman 1st Class Timothy Larsen, and Chief Damage Controlman Alberto Rodriguez who were assisted by six tenant command EM representatives in getting the word out.
"Historically, we've seen many disasters happen and most of the people affected don't have plans in place to take care of themselves and their loved ones resulting in unnecessary hardships. We will be able to effectively focus on handling the situation at hand knowing we've planned and have the means to survive on our own for an extended amount of time until outside disaster assistance is up and running," said Rodriguez.
More information on disaster and emergency preparedness can be found on http://www.fema.gov/, http://www.ready.navy.mil/, and http://www.ready.gov/.
For more news from Naval Air Facility Misawa, Japan, visit www.navy.mil/local/nafmisawa/.
To sign up for updates or to access your subscriber preferences, please click on the envelope icon in the page header above or click