GLEN JEAN, W.Va. — The experience the West Virginia National Guard and other military agencies gain from the National Boy Scout Jamboree underway in Fayette County will prove to be invaluable, according to state Adjutant General Jim Hoyer.
The Guard is in charge of a military force numbering 1,100 members at the Glen Jean site while Hoyer and state Homeland Security/Emergency Services Director Jimmy Gianato are leading a joint inter-agency task force there.
Work done over the next 10 days will benefit the Guard and other state agencies the next time West Virginia is hit with a natural disaster, Hoyer said.
“We can respond faster if we’re talking to each other and we’re communicating effectively and we can anticipate how to move resources better,” Hoyer said.
While there’s a big commitment at the Summit Bechtel Family Scout Reserve, there are two large military exercises taking place simultaneously in other parts of the state, Hoyer said. The Century Storm exercise involves the 130th and 167th Airlift Wings of the Air National Guard while a special focus, homeland security event, has about 700 people involved in the Camp Dawson, Morgantown area.
“With the Jamboree specific support and the two other events we have 2,083 personnel working in 30 counties including 48 agencies representing 13 states and the federal government,” Hoyer said.
One of the big goals during this year’s Jamboree is to begin preparations for the World Jamboree scheduled for the Bechtel site in 2019, Hoyer said.
“We’ve got to do simultaneous preparation for that right now,” he said. “Two years seems like a long time to some people but we’ve been in the planning cycle for this one (National Jamboree) for the past 24 months.”
With more than 25,000 Boy Scouts and several thousand volunteers, the Bechtel site has become the state’s second largest city. Hoyer said that provides an excellent training ground for the National Guard.
“This is a unique opportunity for us to support the security and the safety for the scouts and be better prepared to do our overseas and homeland missions,” Hoyer said. “It’s the same level of complexity for this or the flood response last year or the (2012) derecho.”