Ep. 07 - The Force Behind Florida’s Top-Tier Disaster Response: Major General John Haas

In this episode we highlight the critical role of the Florida National Guard (FLNG) in disaster response across the state. From supporting communities in the aftermath of storms to integrating seamlessly with emergency management partners, the FLNG serves as a visible, reliable presence when Floridians need it most. This conversation explores how their mission, planning, and partnerships enable them to provide resources, coordination, and reassurance on some of the toughest days communities face.

Tune in for a closer look at how the Florida National Guard helps strengthen response and recovery efforts—and why they remain a key part of Florida’s emergency management toolkit.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to another episode of the Watch Office Podcast. I'm Kevin Guthrie, the Executive Director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. This is where we bring emergency management to the forefront of what we do in Florida. Each episode we sit down with leaders and partners and professionals who keep Florida prepared before, during, and after a disaster strike. And this episode is probably one of my favorite episodes because if um there's he calls me this, I'm going to use his uh terminology for it, my battle buddy. Um when it comes to getting stuff done in the state of Florida, there's a couple of really key partners. You know, Jerry Purdue over at the Department of Transportation. But um we uh again, we look a lot alike, but at the same time, um he's a key partner. But probably the one key critical agency that I I depend on more than any other bar none, hard stop, is the Florida National Guard. And I'm excited to have this week uh that I'm joined with the Adjutant General of the Florida National Guard, my friend Major General John Haas. So, John, thanks for being here. Um, so let's get right into it. Um, General, when when disasters threaten Florida, you know, as I just mentioned, we depend on you guys an awful lot. You're a critical part of the state emergency response team. In your mind and your words, what does the National Guard do for the state emergency response team?

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Well, first, thank you. I'm excited to be a part of the series. I don't know why I'm so late in the series. I think I should have been the number one in the series, but you should have been. I'm sure I'm sure uh my schedule didn't permit it. But uh no, thank you so much. And I think it's truly important to talk about how the Florida National Guard uh is a contributing member uh to the emergency response efforts in Florida that are truly the gold standard, no doubt. And uh and our relationship and truly the relationship of DEM and the Florida National Guard go back a long way, and and I'm proud to be part of that that relationship. I think the the the important thing first and foremost is to understand the role of the National Guard, the unique role in that we have uh dual dual missions. Unlike the Act component and unlike the reserves, the National Guard truly has two mission sets. We support a federal mission and a state mission, and it requires two reporting change, which is also fairly unique to services. And it's really is how the National Guard is able to do both those missions and do them well. Uh on my on the day-to-day, my daily missions, my routine missions, I'm responsible to the governor uh to ensure that our National Guard, our 12,000 guardsmen, are prepared to fight and win our war fighting missions. And it's an important mission, and we take it very seriously, and we have a really, really relevant force structure to do that. And then in our uh emergent missions or operations, I have a duty to responsibility and to our state coordinating officer or director of emergency management to ensure that I'm a force provider for forces to support and work with the Department of Emergency Management to answer the call of our citizens in the great state of Florida. And I think that's important. I think what distinguishes Florida from so many of our other states is how we get after that mission. And it's important because I think threat and geography matters. I think that's a really big part of how Florida does it. I think we're a model for a lot of states that are about the same size, that may or may not have the same threat, with the hurricanes being the third largest and fastest growing, 1,300 miles of coastline and the frequency of hurricanes. Our approach to emergency management and the way the Florida National Guard as a force provider to you, uh, we approach it. And the most uh distinctive thing I can say is that we approach it from a mission command perspective. If you were a Rhode Island or a state that doesn't typically have emergency management, you would probably approach it a little bit differently than Florida does. And Florida's approach, because it's a large area uh with uh uh uh unpredictable, well while we can predict timing, hurricanes uh change quite often, so we have to have a mobile defense and a very wide area operations. So uh we're able to push our formations out to the field and command at that level and resp and respond to you rather than having essentially commanded formation, which a lot of other states do. And I think that really enables us and it ties us to our communities in a way that I don't see happen in a lot of other states.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Yeah, I think uh to that last point that you just talked about is um, you know, we often, if there was a sports analogy, especially like football or basketball, we really start out at the very beginning, you know, 96 hours, 72 hours in advance. You're you got this wide zone defense, and then you start to get it centered down to where we start to bring those uh those statewide forces down into the actual hard impact area. So um how does so that that obviously takes a lot of logistics, a lot of operations, but um I I want to start with a planning piece of it. How early do you guys get involved? I know the answer to this question, but I think people would uh certainly um be surprised how early on you guys get involved in the planning piece of emergencies. Um and I let's say that twofold. Let's take emergency season and then an actual emergency. So let's start with a season. So, what are you guys doing throughout the year to get ready for the first time?

SPEAKER_01 5:09

I think that's probably the most surprising that people wouldn't and and really what makes the guard unique because the active duty and the reserves may help respond in a federal status. The guard, it is our mission, so we think about it all the time. It's a no-fill mission for the National Guard, so we do it all the time. So when you talk about planning, it happens year-round and it starts with conferences. And truthfully, because we do have a federal mission, and a large portion of our formation is often deployed in a federal mission. Like this year, we have about 2,300 guardsmen who will be deployed overseas. And so it's my responsibility to take a look at the potential mission requirements on the domestic side and make sure that I coordinate with other state national guards to backfill those formations. And we do that annually at a conference in Louisiana, and that's called an EMAC process, where we coordinate with other state governors and state national guards, and we coordinate to make sure that in the case of a need that they would be available. Inherent in that responsibility is to make sure that they're trained and prepared to operate in Florida like our Florida National Guard does. We can't lose any capability or that coordination. So not only do I have to have our Florida National Guard always trained and always ready, but in the event that they're not available, it's my responsibility that the follow-on forces that come in to replace them can meet uh your needs in the operational aspects of what we do.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Yeah, so and again, for the listeners and viewers that are uh joining us today, um it we are statutorily, when I say we, the Florida Division of Emergency Management is statutorily required to go out and meet annually in the field with our cities and counties and see what their needs are. You provide a liaison to me on a day-to-day basis. So I actually have a military liaison or National Guard liaison that works in this building. And he is out right now with my CERT chief doing those uh those those uh county by counties. I think right now they're in uh regions nine and ten, which is South Florida. Uh so again, that's happening on a day-to-day basis. So let's change things up. You know, I I know you're a part of our battle rhythm here. So typically, you know, something's out in the Atlantic, we're monitoring it. So there's that. But let's change that ever so slightly. So uh again, for the people that uh know what we do here, usually about uh T minus um 96, T minus 72, we're going into her, we'll we'll say we'll with hurricane. Um what is the Florida National Guard doing, let's say three and four days out?

unknown 7:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

I had to stay one more, if I could just step back one more piece, which is really important to that three and four days out before you can get there. As you mentioned, the LNO process, not only we train LNOs in that aspect, we annually, part of our annual battle rhythm is we train a whole cohort of LNOs, enough to uh accommodate each of our 67 counties, and we train them and we try to make sure that we train them with guardsmen that are actually local to those communities because we know that they have the best intel, they have the best relationships, they know those people, and they also know the capabilities of the National Guard, and we train them both so they understand our capabilities, but more importantly, that they can interact with the EOC and the state and provide those eyes and ears as well as do over-the-shoulder training or assist those emergency managers. So that happens early on, and those are some of the very, very first people we get out into the field. So they're probably the first that we mobilize. And then we bring on our planning cells as appropriate. But the the other thing that makes the National Guard, because we mentioned that hurricanes are unpredictable, we don't like to get fixed because of hurricanes. Because once the hurricane hits, it's hard to react. And it's important for us to uh be a very mobile uh uh response force. So we bring our soldiers in because, unlike almost every other state, uh we have the ability to bring soldiers in because of the tremendous funding we get. Um we had three hurricanes last year, but I think we probably brought soldiers in maybe four or five times because we'd rather bring them in three or four days early, go through the uh troop leading procedures and all those things that you need to be successful. And we actually move them out of the armories even before the hurricane hits so that we get them in a staging area so they're best able to respond. I think that's really critical to some of the success that Florida has, is that we're able to bring those soldiers in because you can't be late to need. Right. And I think that's hugely important. So for us, we bring them in, we get them in the armories, we mobilize them, we issue equipment, we do all those things, we prep the vehicles, and then we literally move to some type of staging area, typically a uh fairgrounds or something that's been established by the state that we can occupy that puts us in the best position to respond behind the storm. It's always our intent to be the first thing that our citizens see when they open the doors on their worst day. Yeah. A guardsman and a Humbee that can provide uh tailgate uh supplies, what do they need and provide that uh reconnaissance that we need, any emergency uh activities that need to happen on the spot.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Yeah, I um again, you know, and and it it takes, you know, it I think people need to understand that when the National Guard is uh the best tool that I have in my toolkit that I that I get to use in a disaster. But it's big army, it's big Air Force, it is it it's a little bit slow. So um what I mean by that is I need to give you the more time I can give you on the front end, the better you're gonna be on the back side. So um, you know, we we try to get the National Guard involved um and called up to full duty active uh activation. Uh usually 72 hours is um the target window uh tried to do it no later than 48 hours. Um so John, is there um you you just mentioned we had three hurricanes last year. Uh since you and I have been uh battle buddies together, I think we've probably had six or seven. Um, and that's just as your time as the uh as a tag, not as the A tag. Um is there a a disaster or a disaster season or something that was unique that um you know the the your soldiers and airmen did that you just you know you you want to take a little minute to be uh a gloating dad, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Well, I think the lessons learned are for the first part. I think the 92 hurricane was a uh inflection point in how we do emergency management for sure. I think we were disjointed. I don't think we worked as an organization, and the way the National Guard supported emergency management uh didn't work well. Uh uh and I think we've learned from that. I think um uh Andrew uh was a bit of a challenge in the in in our response there. I think we missed a little bit of timing on that because we didn't get out in front of a hurricane as it in the panhandle area, I think, right? A little bit. But the really the last three hurricanes was I truly was the most proud of. I think the way that we responded, I think uh um some of the things that we did uh with uh uh bridges and some innovative ways that we moved uh equipment, uh generators, vehicles on the islands that hadn't happened before. I think that that was really innovative. And I think it was really timely. And I think um it it the people, when people see those types of things happening uh quickly, I think it calms the nerves and brings stability to the community in ways that that are really important. And I think uh the guardsmen recognizing that they have to be expeditionary and those things happening uh was truly, in my opinion, a turning point in our Florida National Guard and how we approach it. And truthfully, because we approach hurricanes in an expeditionary manner, we never get fixed. We we treat everything as a combat operation using all of our same exact combat systems from our communication systems to our equipment. And we've shaped our formation over the years to be both a great domestic op formation as well as a really relevant war fighting mission. Our guardsmen are not only tremendous uh citizen soldiers that support domestic operations here in the state of Florida, they're very, very well-trained guardsmen in their war fighting uh capabilities because we're using a lot of the same equipment and skill sets.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Yeah, it I and I'm not um I don't I don't even pretend to play in your space, but you know, if there's is if there's some ATAG or Assistant Adjutant General or uh Adjutant General listening to this because I have you on here as a guest today. You know, I um I remember one uh just a couple of years ago, um, we had a specific security mission uh for the state Homeland Security, and you're like, hey, I've got a widget that really meets what you guys can do. It's much safer than what we're doing right now. Um and I'm gonna talk in a little bit of code speak, if you will, but we got a widget that meets the need, it's much safer than what we're doing. We got to get that approved, but um I use that as an example to say, yeah, there is a great tie-in. Um, and I I think if you want to be like Florida, you want to do the great things, and you're uh in the in your National Guard situation, uh listening to this podcast, is go out and look at your wartime mission and then see what parallels over on your your state mission because uh you have, I I will say this, I when I go and talk to my other state directors about the things that we're doing, they are there there's not a communication like you and I have, there's not a collaboration like you and I have to look for the ways that you can get tactile training on a state mission. So um definitely want to make sure uh that people you know reach out to us and and and and get that. Um so I I'm gonna kind of hard transition here because um again, uh this podcast is I don't want to say dedicated, but it kind of serves twofold. It it it informs citizens on how we do things and how um you know telling our story, right? And and that's a good piece of it. But there's also a piece of this that I'm using it to target um kids coming out of high school, kids that are uh you know, young adults that are uh getting ready to graduate college, and they might be interested in a career in emergency management. In this case, since I've got you on the on the on the uh podcast today, um often people um I and so I want to before I get into that, I want to transition this almost into a recruiting tool and let you get your good story out there on what you guys do. So how how does the mission first and foremost resonate? And if you're you know you're you're a young person looking at maybe wanting to do this, what can somebody, you know, the feel-good. What is the feel-good that somebody could get out of this?

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Yeah, I think that uh, as I mentioned early at the beginning of the podcast, that uh the dual mission nature of the National Guard, it is unique, it's special. Uh, and I think particularly in a state like Florida and truly the South Carolinas and the other states that have uh a major domestic op mission set, it there is a special um relationship between the National Guard and their communities. Every National Guard has a relationship with the community because we are community-based organizations, and that's where our guardsmen come from, and that's special. But when your National Guard is doing uh three hurricanes a year, they're supporting uh critical needs and the Department of Corrections and so many very important things, and the citizens see them on a daily basis doing great things, and they're part of their communities. Um, service is a wonderful thing, and the federal warfighting mission is a very special thing, and there's a certain population or demographic out there that naturally is gravitates towards that mission, and we are so glad to have them. But it is truly a different guardsman or a different soldier or airman that chooses to be in the National Guard. And once they're there, um they're there for a long time. Um, it's a special thing. Our big challenge, and as you know, is that uh because guardsmen do have a dual mission, um, they're they're often overworked. We're an undersized formation, and because we are a state that has uh a very, really important um domestic operation, we do uh typically more days than a lot of other states. But I have to tell you that um a lot of the guardsmen stay, and and it and it's a challenging time for them, but they stay because um they truly are inspired by what they do for their citizens uh during their worst days, and and you and you see it all the time. And so it's a proud day. And when they do leave, I gotta be honest, they um they leave uh regretting that to leave, um, but they often come back. I think they their life uh slow down a little bit and they'll come back, and I think that's a special thing as well. But uh, and as you know, also so many of our guardsmen are first responders in in some aspect, whether it's law enforcement or in the medical field, so that's also a very, a very special thing.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

So if you're if you're um so I I think one of my um, and I'll just kind of put what is my favorite piece of the of the Florida National Guard, other than getting to uh move around the state with you and your aid-de-camp. Um I I think for me as I get ready to set up this last question, is you know, it it goes to skills and backgrounds of of uh your soldiers and airmen, but I think one of my favorite units that you have is your Red Horse unit. And um, you know, we we just you know, post-COVID really started using that uh that battalion more. Uh I say battalion, that unit more. And uh, you know, so maybe really, really broad-based, um, what are the skills and backgrounds and things that you're looking to attract as you recruit the next generation of substance soldiers?

SPEAKER_01 18:18

The wonderful thing about the Florida National Guard, both Army and Air, again, two two generally typically different uh demographics that we recruit to. Uh but uh we can all we offer so much. Uh on the Army side, uh, again, about 10,000 guardsmen, uh, wide-ranging career fields from the infantry to field artillery, um, special forces, aviation. These are all really, really special uh MOSs that are combat arms, which is really appealing to our younger generation, and only the National Guard can offer that. Um, so so we have no challenges recruiting. We're at 106% recruiting. Uh, we want to grow larger again. Uh I think our recruiting population in Florida is about 20 size, 20 times is larger than 20 different states at it. So it's a we have a huge pop uh recruiting population, and we're blessed to be able to offer so many different career fields in about 66 different Army locations throughout the state of Florida. So we're all over the place on the Army side. On the air side, uh we're a very, very unique Air National Guard. We just received the F-35, which is the next gen air fighter. It's a wonderful aircraft in Jacksonville. Uh it's a great new mission. Um, and uh, if you're in the Air Force, if you're in the aviation community, certainly you want to be on that aircraft. So it's a really appealing aircraft for people to be there. Um, but we also uh have a great uh air uh operations center in Tyndall. It's a very special mission, uh observing the skies in our southeast southeast sector every day, protecting the skies of the southern part of the continental United States, important, as well as uh alert detachment down in Homestead uh on mission every day doing great things. But then as you mentioned, the Red Horse Squadron. So this really very special uh engineering capability that's expeditionary, that builds runways and does special things, that's uh really, really unique and has a great uh history there at Camp Landing. And uh we're currently um uh stationing a brand new special tactics squadron. So the Air Force Special Ops community uh supporting those special operators out there, and we think that'll probably be in the McDail area as it gets stood up. So another great capability. Again, if you are if you are a young person that wants to join the military, uh the National Guard, particularly the Florida National Guard, offers uh just about any career field uh that they're looking for, plus the ability to serve citizens every day uh in a very great way.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

And I I think, you know, um again, because I know a little bit of the behind-the-scenes stuff of what you're trying to do at the state and national level, even though you said you're at 100%, 106% recruiting, you're you're in essence maxed out. I know that every day you're you're you're talking to the Secretary of Ward, the Secretary of Army, Secretary of Uh, the Air Force to, hey, uh National Guard Bureau, uh, we're we're looking to expand. We're ready to expand. We've got the pool. Let us do it. Um, I you know, and I I don't want to put words in your mouth, so I'm gonna let you say the number, but as far as per capita, I think the right word is per capita, this is gonna shock people that listen to this. Per capita, where do we, where does the national the size of the National Guard match with our state?

SPEAKER_01 21:32

So the National Guard remains 53 at 54 in the nation of states when you look at guardsman to citizen ratio, which means uh uh and and we're in a state that's the fastest growing and third largest. We're the most hurricane prone, the third most disaster uh prone. Um we have a uh uh a coastline. I think uh 80% of our population lives within 18 miles of the coastline, 1300 mile coastline. And so our guard, uh Being the third, you know, having this the second worst guardsman, the citizen ratio is certainly the most overworked. So we work every day with the state, with the support of our legislature and the governor to build our formation out. We should truly be about 17 or 18,000, which is a reasonable number. And if we did that, we would reduce the burden on our undersized formation. Right now, as mentioned, our guardsmen this past year did 106 days. Now that was unusual because of three hurricanes, and really a very uh uh it just happened to be that time, about every three or four years we get a major uh deployment window and we're in it right now. So not only do we do three years or three separate hurricanes, but we have a large portion of our formation deploying for a federal warfighting mission. Again, that puts a lot of mission requirements on a very small force. So we work every day to grow that force, and that's why we're we're appealing to these young folks. And we can drive that number above 100, but the most important thing is to get more formations. And right now, uh over the next year and a half, we're gonna grow another infantry battalion, two more engineer companies, and an MI company. That's significant growth in an environment where there's limited growth nationally. So Florida is doing the right things because we're manning our formations, both army and air, um, with very, very qualified and ready formations.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

Yeah. Um so for those that might have said, what did he say, the MI? So MI stands for Military Intelligence. Military intelligence. So again, you know, Florida is rich in um a lot of special operations and a lot of uh commands, if you will, at the uh at the at the big military level. Um these are all ways to go. I I, you know, one of the benefits um of being in the National Guard, I think, is um God forbid we ever had to go through a nationwide pandemic or a worldwide pandemic again, but just about everybody who wanted to work that did not have that may have lost their job because of the pandemic were immediately working. They did not miss a paycheck. And uh because we put I I think we put everybody that was available to work near that uh at that time.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

So we're proud of that. And we're proud I mentioned today also earlier that uh in a different meeting that uh our I think we have 600 soldiers working for for you right now, Kevin, I think, doing some great things in different capacities in the state of Florida. And we're so proud of the fact that they're volunteers. So not only they're working doing great things, they've all chosen to do this. Uh we we ask a lot of our guardsmen in this scenario, these folks were all volunteers that are doing the domestic operations. Um so we're we're proud of that aspect as well.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Yeah, and I uh, you know, when I'm out across the state, whether it's uh the South Florida facility, the North Florida facility, um, and moving around, I you know, I because you tell me that all the time, these they are volunteering. They want to be there. I certainly go out of my way to make sure that they know that we're they are appreciated. And uh to that end, to you, um, your your ATAGs uh and the you know, the guys that I work with on a day-to-day basis, um, you know, the uh domestic security uh advisors and and just all the great men and women of the Florida National Guard. We, the Florida Division of Emergency Management and the State Emergency Response Team, would never be who we are today and what we are as a leader. We are the leader in the industry in the United States. Um and actually, you know, I didn't get to share this with you. We got with just within the last couple of weeks, we've had three phone calls from three countries that have uh asked us to uh uh kind of start consulting and helping them out because they're they're recovering some from from some really catastrophic disaster. So um, you know, at the heart of that are the men and women of the Florida National Guard. So I appreciate you uh being here with us. This wraps up our episode of the Watch Office Podcast, and I thank you for listening. Thanks uh again to uh my friend, my battle buddy, Major General Haas of the Florida National Guard for being with us today. Um again, uh if you uh are you if you want to continue to get this, um please like and subscribe wherever you get your podcast. And we will see you next time on the watch office. Very good. And clap it out.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Clap it out!

unknown 26:00

You did so good.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

There's a lot of editing going on there.