Garrison Wiesbaden empowers readiness through family assistance center training

WIESBADEN, Germany - U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden's Directorate of Family, Morale, Welfare, and Recreation trained its ability to provide emergency family assistance and shelter during a mass care exercise, May 21 at the Wiesbaden Sports and Fitness Center at Clay Kaserne.

Annual emergency exercises are essential for garrison readiness and community safety. These drills help personnel and residents practice response procedures, clarify roles, and improve coordination among agencies.

Coordinated response in action

During this exercise the DFMWR tested the capabilities of both the Emergency Family Assistance Center and Safe Haven to provide services during an emergency setting.

"Both have been exercised before but at separate locations. Setting up mass care (safe haven) together with the EFAC in the gym is a first," said Jason E. Conrad, a DFMWR project planner.

An EFAC is a dedicated facility established during emergencies to support families and individuals affected by crises. EFACs provide a range of services, including information, counseling, legal and financial assistance, and access to essential resources. Their main purpose is to help families recover, stay informed, and access the support they need to navigate challenging situations.

"[We] set up a location where service members, family, [and] civilians can come and receive the essential services that they may have lost," explained Jeremy Plumley, Army Community Service division chief and EFAC chief. "For instance, if there was a house fire and somebody loses all their identification, their credit card, their passports, we have service providers present that can assist them with all those things."

A Safe Haven or Mass Care Operation is a coordinated effort to provide temporary shelter, food, water, and basic necessities to people displaced by emergencies. The goal is to ensure the safety and well-being of affected individuals until they can return home or find alternative accommodations.

"If there is ever an emergency like natural disasters, or severe security threats, we want the community to know that the garrison has a plan. Their safety is [our] top priority and we as a garrison have the capabilities to handle any situation," said Israel Rivera, mobilization and deployment program manager. "These exercises are done for the community's wellbeing in mind. Our agencies need to be trained and proficient to deal with any situation."

The goal is to make sure that military families are always taken care of, and ensuring specific accommodations are available for pregnant or breastfeeding woman, families with small children, elderly people, and persons with medical situations.

Putting plans into practice

Early in the morning, a notification triggered the start of the exercise. Agencies responded by setting up operations in the gym, where displaced individuals-portrayed by role players - signed in to the Safe Haven and EFAC. Role players presented various issues during the exercise to further challenge and assess the effectiveness of the operations.

Throughout the exercise, participants practiced and evaluated setup, timing, planning, and administrative tasks. Supporting directorates and agencies like the Red Cross, Army Emergency Relief, the Legal office, Community Bank, and the Religious Support Office were all onsite to provide assistance and resources.

The safe haven in the gym provided mobility support, a rest area, logistics hub, an area for children and pets, and an area for food and drink supplies. The EFAC also provided a waiting area, tailored to families with children.

During this exercise 18 displaced family units were taken care of. In a real emergency the gym could hold up to 500 people with additional capacities in the schools and the Wiesbaden Entertainment Center on Hainerberg.

Plumley also explained why regular training is important, "Staff changes constantly, so we lose a lot of experience every time somebody PCSes. So we do a lot of exercises to make sure that new staff are caught up in the protocols and procedures to make sure that we are always ready at the drop of a dime."

A testament to how important exercise operations are, U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart took the opportunity to send some of their ACS staff to observe the Wiesbaden exercise in person, providing insight and preparation for their full-scale exercise in September.

Exercises like this, along with other more theoretical tabletop exercises, are part of the garrison's ongoing commitment to readiness and continuous improvement. These efforts help prepare the community for the Army's triennial exercise cycle, which will bring another full-scale installation exercise to Wiesbaden in 2027.