Mount tacoma Post. 555th EnginEEr BrigadE deployment review Meeting. ReseRvations. Location. DeceMber 2013

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1 Mount tacoma Post society of american MILItarY engineers 555th EnginEEr BrigadE deployment review Program: For the past nine months, the 555th served as Joint Task Force Triple Nickel, leading a 5,000-strong U.S. Theater Engineer Brigade supporting NATO s International Security Assistance Force throughout Afghanistan. The Brigade sought to hand off a positive, lasting legacy, a substantive record of progress and development on which the next brigade could build and demonstrated tangible progress in each aspect of the Theater Engineer Brigade s mission. With coalition mentorship, including training and support from JTF Triple Nickel, more than 40 Afghan National Army (ANA) engineer companies now operate independently, including route clearance units, and five construction battalions were established. These construction units have already built and improved Afghan roads and facilities throughout the country, helping ensure that Afghan forces can build, protect, and sustain their own infrastructure, especially after the drawdown of coalition forces. The 555th managed more than 240 construction projects, totaling more than $40 million in value, to support the draw down and consolidation of coalition forces. The brigade also established and managed small-repair teams which completed well over 100 health and safety-related projects. JTF Triple Nickel s ongoing route clearance mission led to the discovery and safe removal of over 300 enemy-emplaced improvised explosive devices from key roadways across the theater, thanks to the continued efforts of more than 30 route clearance platoons operating under the brigade. This has helped protect the lives of both Coalition forces and the Afghan populace, both targeted by IEDs. Speaker: LTC Alexander Bullock, a 1998 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, served as the Operations Officer for the 555th Engineer Brigade while deployed to Afghanistan, overseeing a country-wide engineering mission, and now serves as the Executive Officer of the Brigade. He has served in various leadership positions at all levels from Platoon Leader to Brigade Staff. DeceMber 2013 Meeting Thursday, December 12th This month s meeting will be held on Thursday, the 12th, at 11:30 am at the La Quinta Inn, Tacoma, WA. The cost is $25 per person ($26 if paying by Credit card) and $15 for uniformed personnel for a hot buffet style lunch and 2 (two) half & half Chance tickets if you RSVP before the due date. The prices listed above are the discounted prices for those that RSVP. There will be an additional $5 charge at the door if you have not RSVP d. ReseRvations Please Contact Kim Kaul by at kkaul@ahbl.com by Tuesday, December 10th to make your reservations. Location Small-repair teams led by the 555th Engineer Brigade operated throughout Afghanistan, often traveling by air to reach smaller bases and outposts. Brigade Headquarters Company renders honors during This month s meeting will be held at the La Quinta Inn, Tacoma, 1425 East 27th St Tacoma, WA. Directions: Heading I-5 S-bound: exit 135-Portland Ave., continue straight until you see La Quinta on your right hand side. I-5 N-bound: exit 134-Portland Ave., turn left onto E. Portland Ave., then left onto 27th Ave. Hotel will be on your right.

2 Mount tacoma post donates to the 555 able soldiers & FaMiLy support Fund For the past several years, the Mt. Tacoma Post has adopted the 555 Engineer Brigade and provided support not only to the Brigade itself by sponsoring various activities and events, but as importantly, to the 555 Able Soldiers & Family Support Fund. The latter provides assistance to the Soldiers and their families in times of need. The 555 Soldiers recently returned home and the need for support remains considerable, particularly with the Holiday season at hand. The Mount Tacoma Post has just donated $1,000 to the fund, and we encourage our sustaining members and individuals to also do what they can. This is an important cause, and any funds donated will go directly to families in need without any administrative costs to be deducted. Your Mount Tacoma Post raised close to $10,000 last year; let s see if we can match it - or do even better this year. The Able Fund is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt organization. Your help will be very much appreciated. Donations can be made to: 555 Able Soldiers & Family Fund, c/o Erik Prestegaard, Helix Design Group, th Street E, Suite 201, Tacoma, WA If further details are required, please contact Erik Prestegaard at erikp@ helixdesigngroup.net. scholarship winners give thanks!! Thomas Larson - Mt. Tacoma SAME Scholarship winner - I d like to let you know that I recently graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in Mechatronics. Instead of pursuing a traditional career, I ve embarked upon launching a start-up based around tech I developed at UW. The tech is a soft plastic lens that when attached to a cell phone camera, turns the phone into a mobile microscope. This has many applications from manufacturing to education to health. I ve recently launched a fundraiser on the website Kickstarter and it is doing very well: kickstarter.com/projects/ /micro-phone-lens-cell-phone-based-microscope I would like to thank the Mt. Tacoma post of SAME for helping make this possible. By believing in me and supporting me financially, the MT. Tacoma post has contributed to what will hopefully be a great invention and product Thank you, Thomas Jordan Ramsey - Mt. Tacoma SAME Scholarship winner - I hope this finds you before the November newsletter goes out, included is my report on my progress at school. Thank you again for all of your help! Currently I am halfway through my first quarter as a second year at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. The Industrial Engineering program, the Society of Women Engineers and college life keep me extremely busy. This quarter I began digging into my major classes, one being a process improvement class. This class includes a large group project where we must improve productivity within a business. My group chose a coffee shop on campus and through the use of a Pareto chart we were able to identify the top four revenue producing drinks that could include areas of improvement through their many steps. We are currently taking time studies and creating spaghetti diagrams to identify the areas for improvement within each drink s process. I am also enjoying my technical writing course which includes working in a group to create an online repair guide for a group member s laptop. This year, along with learning to work effectively within a group, I am developing my networking skills as I attended my first career fair and learned valuable interview skills throughout the process. I wanted to thank SAME again for the generous scholarship and for taking the time to invest in my education Thank you all so much, respectfully, Jordan Ramsey

3 mount tacoma post Board members President Lt Col Mike Moran First VP Mike Cozart Past President Lt Col Dat Lam VP Individual Members Daniel Brooks Secretary Bill Fierst Treasurer Janna Peters Assistant Treasurer Deneise Kopetzky Roy Cutler Erik Prestegaard Newsletter Dave Newkirk VP Sustaining Members Dave Newkirk VP Young Members Program Co-Chair Program Co-Chair John Haddick Education Chair Student Chapter Mentor Jeff Feeney local military Engineering Contacts US ARMY 555th Engineer Brigade Commander, COL Holman SAME LIAISON 864th Engineer Battalion Commander, LTC John Henderson SAME LIAISON, CPT Richard A. Mahn I Corps G35 Engineer Planner Vacant SAME LIAISON Commander, LTC John Buck SAME LIAISON, MAJ Rob Hilliard robert.hilliard@us.army.mil ARMY NATIONAL GUARD Construction and Facilities Maintenance COL Duane Coffey duane.coffey@us.army.mil US AIR FORCE 627 Civil Engineer Squadron Commander, Lt Col Jennifer Phelps Jennifer.phelps@us.af.mil Engineer Squadron Commander: Lt Col Christopher Buzo, christopher.buzo.1@us.af.mil AIR NATIONAL GUARD 248 Civil Engineer Flight Commander, Col Dan Biles SAME LIAISON, Lt Col Michael Moran Michael.moran@ang.af.mil NAVY RESERVE CAPT John DeBerard, PE, CEC, USN and point of contact is the RSS Supervisor LTJG ERIC FRANKLIN, CEC, USN Phone (253) th Engineer Battalion AIR FORCE RESERVES. 446 Civil

4 mount tacoma post sustaining member Firms Absher Construction AHBL Apex Engineering, PLLC AMEC BCRA BCE Engineers, BELAY Architecture Berschauer Phillips Construction Centennial Contractors CH2M Hill Cooper Zietz Engineering David Evans & Assoc EA Engineering, Science, and Technology, ext EHS International Enginuity Systems, Garland/DBS GeoEngineers, GHD Graham Group Hart Crowser, Helix Design Group Hermanson HDR Howard S. Wright Huitt-Zollars, www. huitt-zollars.com H. W. Lochner Informed Land Survey John Korsmo Construction Kennedy Jenks Consultants KPFF Consulting Engineers Med-Tox Northwest Merit Construction Northwest NCM Contracting ORB Architects Pace Engineers Parametrix PCL PSI Reid Middleton Rite in the Rain ext Shannon & Wilson, Inc Siemens Industries Sitts & Hill Engineers, Spectra Flooring TCF Architecture Tetra Tech The Walsh Group Welsh Commissioning Group W. H. Pacific in this space! If you would like to become a Sustaining Member of the Mount Tacoma Post, please contact DuWayne Gratz at or dgratz@bcradesign.com.

5 emergency preparedness and infrastructure ResiLience The mission of the Society of American Military engineers is To promote and facilitate engineering support for national security by developing and enhancing relationships and competencies among uniformed services, public and private sector engineers, and related professionals. One key avenue for the society to accomplish that mission is to make the expertise and capabilities of our members readily available to government agencies responsible for response to natural and man made disasters. To accomplish that end the Mt. Tacoma and Seattle Posts established a Readiness and Homeland Security Committee. The planning document used by the committee to accomplish it s mission is the Fast Start Plan. The purpose of the Fast Start Plan is to identify and promote SAME s local emergency response capabilities for natural and man-made disasters in our local area. Historically, large-scale response to emergencies has been a partnership between government and private industry. The full support potential of the A/E and construction industry in the Puget Sound area can only be reached when the Government s emergency managers and the executives of the member companies are aware of each other s requirements and capabilities. The Fast Start Plan provides this information. The committee needs to know if you or your firm will be available to respond with your resources in the event of a disaster. The key questions are: (1) what capabilities do you offer to emergency managers in the early stages of disaster response and (2) how responsive can you be given that a regional event, such as an earthquake, may damage your facilities including employees homes. Any member firm that would like to participate as a listed available resource to government emergency management agencies should contact the Mt. Tacoma or Seattle Post Co-Chair of the Emergency Preparedness and Infrastructure Resilience Committee. In addition, any individual member who would like to work with the Committee is encouraged to contact one of the same committee co-chairs. If you have any questions about this effort please contact: John Haddick (Mount Tacoma Post) Readiness Committee Co-Chairman at jehaddick@msn.com / (253) or Pam Cobley (Seattle Post) Readiness Committee Co-Chair, at pcobley@rothhill.com / (425) Calendar of upcoming events December 12th Monthly Meeting, 11:30am at LaQuinta Inn, Tacoma. December 20th Board Members meeting, 7am at Elmer s Restaurant in Tacoma. January 21th Meet the Agencies, 07:30am at Holiday Inn, Seatac. January 24th Board Members meeting, 7am at Elmer s Restaurant in Tacoma.