Russel Honore for FEMA's head

[Dag von Lubitz]

SELECT GENERAL HONORÉ AS THE HEAD OF FEMA
The period of transition from Bush to Obama Administration invigorated the debate about the future of FEMA, and arguments whether it should remain a part of DHS or be reconstituted as a cabinet level agency become increasingly vigorous. What is NOT debated is who should head the Agency, be it under the existing umbrella of DHS or as an independent organization. Yet, this is a critical decision: the appointee may have direct influence on the fate of millions of people affected by disasters that will surely and inevitably come.

Prior experience has clearly indicated that FEMA’s administrator must have a broad experience in directing an exceedingly complex entity whose actions transit from steady bureaucratic pace to stemming the chaos and unpredictability of a natural disasters, then solving the immense complexity of human and administrative process of recovery and rebuilding. It has to be a person with exquisite command and leadership skills that can be gained and honed only through the practical experience of a most senior military command. A person capable of vision unclouded by the demands of the administrative “process,” and one who can make instantaneous decisions that are right rather than bureaucratically or politically correct. A person of proven courage and integrity, able to lead as much from the front as from the D.C office. A paragon.

Can such be found? Yes! General Russell Honoré, the man whom New Orleans owes its survival, the man who at the time of utter chaos and disorganization brought order to the city teetering on the brink of collapse, and the man who subsequently devoted his time and energy to spreading the mantra of preparedness as the key to response and recovery. Russ Honoré, one of the very few individuals surrounded by open and the universal respect and admiration of professionals and citizens alike, the man who showed “it can be done” providing one has the necessary attributes and stamina.

We do not need to debate who should lead FEMA after the 20th of January 2009. We have the man, the only person who has enough authority, command skill, talent and understanding of what is necessary to prevent the limping agency from a total disintegration right before the next hurricane season. General Honoré is that man, but in the world where political debts are often paid with positions within the new government, his appointment depends as much on the new President as on us, the citizens. OUR lives may one day depend on the efficiency of FEMA, and that efficiency in a very large measure depends on the man who leads the Agency. This is the only appointment which should not be left in the hands of the forthcoming Administration alone, but that should be decided by those whom the appointee will really serve: ourselves. It is the man whose actions will be critical to the citizens of the Gulf states and the states along the East Coast, to California, and the flood plains of Mississippi. And we, the citizens must, more than ever, exercise our influence on that selection. The time is short. The new administration takes over on the 20th of January 2009, and the forthcoming Secretary of DHS, Governor Napolitano will surely want to have the position occupied as soon as absolutely possible. Hence, a massive grass root effort is necessary to generate enough “vox populi” on the subject of appointing General Honoré to make it heard as “vox dei.” I am sure, nobody will argue with the choice: Russ Honoré has enough authority to outweigh any criticism be it from professional or political circles - I am yet to see a congressman who’d dare question the general about his ability to lead or know what FEMA is and should be about (for more about the General go to http://www.honoreforfema.com . Thus make your voice be heard: write to your congressman or congresswoman, send a message to Mr. Obama at www.change.gov, write to your local newspaper or TV station. Act and be an agent of change of which we have heard so much, and for which all of us have voted. For once, it is our unique chance to force selection to one of the most important posts in the nation of a man most of that nation knows and trusts, a man who proved himself, and who showed us all that, indeed, “it can be done,” and that we can start trusting FEMA again.

Dag von Lubitz, PhD, MD(Sc)
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[Dag von Lubitz]

I think we begin to get out of the box mentioned by Mr. Hoffman - and have a nice cutter to add us in the process. Russ Honore.

[Ed Beakley]

"a late convert to homeland security...rather see someone from FEMA's ranks or the nation's emergency management community take the lead"
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With all due respect Colonel, I don't think the following defines "late." And as to "militarizing Washington," what is needed -badly - in FEMA is "operationalizing." Severe disasters/worst cases are battlegrounds. The "enemy" doesn't need an AK47 to requirea leadership response that is highly operationaly experienced.

Prior to his command of Joint Task Force-Katrina - leading the Department of Defense response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana - General Honoré served in a variety of command and staff positions which focused on Defense Support to Civil Authorities and Homeland Defense. As Vice Director for Operations, J-3, The Joint Staff, Washington, D.C., and, as the Commander, Standing Joint Force Headquarters-Homeland Security, United States Northern Command, General Honoré’s focus was Defense Support to Civil Authorities and Homeland Defense. For four of the past six hurricane seasons, he supported the Department of Defense planning and response for Hurricanes Floyd in 1999; Lilli and Isidore in 2002 (both hit the Gulf Coast); Isabel in 2003; and Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne in 2004. General Honoré also planned and supported the United States military response to the devastating flooding which swept Venezuela 1999 and Mozambique in 2000. As Vice Director for Operations, he led the Defense Department’s planning and preparation for the anticipated Y2K Millennium anomaly. As Commander of SJFHQ-HLS under NORTHCOM direction, he planned and oversaw the military response to the Space Shuttle Columbia Tragedy and the DC Sniper Shootings. Additionally, General Honoré participated in three TOPOFF (Top Officials) exercises as well as the United Endeavor series of Homeland Defense exercises.

[Dag von Lubitz]

Frank,
What you suggest is another round of the same. In reality, FEMA needs a leader not a narrow specialist. This is a unique organization within the entire governmental spectrum of operations that, in times of disasters (and these may have many forms) must work with a vast number of participants, from victims to (potentially) international organizations, and everything and everybody between these two extremes. Hence, appointing a retired general to the post is not the issue of "militarization": it is the issue of common sense. Hardly anyone within the purely civilian domain has the wherewithal of command skills necessary to conduct activities in ultra-complex, joint, multi-force, and highly dynamic environments (I grant you that Donovan was such maverick, but their days seem to have disappeared.) At no level of civil service education is training in the required command skills offered. Neither do we do not train the forthcoming generation of emergency managers in even moderate leadership competence. The civvy life knows NOTHING about what a staff college is, and that would be a good start for mid- and senior-level civil servants. We have, therefore, a long series of excellent bureaucrats and brilliant specialists failing when coming to the top where leadership is what actually matters, and not the exquisite knowledge of professional minutiae. A good leader (and Honore is such) knows when expertise is needed, where to find it, and how to use it in order to address and resolve the crisis at hand. From purely personal experience (and also from quite abundant literature that is broadly available to all who want to peruse it), experts/specialists most often do not know how to lead – their focus is too narrow, professional parochialism comes to the surface at the most critical moment, and their exquisite but paralyzingly detailed knowledge of elements within the conflict has a profoundly retarding impact if allowed to reign. As a former Marine, you surely know the function of staffs, and the role a good commander plays. It is not the staff that wins the war, but the man whom the staff serves, and who can sort the mess that staff often produces into a coherent operational picture, then redirect the staff, acquire information and knowledge he needs, and finally, initiate action. As an officer you also know that often such actions must be performed under immense stress, at the risk of incurring significant casualties, and the risk of collapsing the entire action due to a faulty decision. FEMA represents an organization that creates such dynamic and unpredictably changing environments every year, and we have absolutely no people professionally capable to deal with them as theater commanders rather than "managers." Honore proved himself in this realm. Do not malign his "conversion" since even here you are actually wrong. He is a force in homeland defense and hardly ever relates to security: both terms acquired sufficient separation of meaning to be entirely distinct, and clearly understandable to anyone dealing with either or both on a less than occasional basis. Moreover, the stance of the General in his active military role at JCS has extremely little to do with the task at hand: mixing proverbial apples and oranges may be a curious intellectual exercise but one that is singularly unproductive and illogical. FEMA is not fighting wars, kinetic or otherwise, and implying the presence of parallel relations borders on intellectual dishonesty. Ultimately, and to end the "conversion" argument, I would simply suggest that you re-read memoirs of St. Augustine. There were better who converted late, and served as pillars. The entire point is, therefore, both unsound and unwise, and clearly resting on the underpinnings of the current mantra of longevity of “experience” as an indicator of good performance (the current banking crisis may, if you bother to take a closer look, convince you to the contrary.) And thus, to illuminate the point by means of another quote, let us follow Otto von Bismarck and pay closer attention to his “I learn not from my own experience but the experience of others.” Fortuitously, in the case of General Honore we have the man who has both his own experience and is clearly capable of learning from the failures of others. That is good enough for me and very many around us: brains behind desk but failing in action are but useless brains. Somehow, albeit indirectly, you seem to advocate the latter. For that reason I feel you’d torpedo Boyd himself for his “late conversion” to issues of military procurement or condemn OODA Loop in civilian life as “militaristic” (which, incidentally, many of my academic colleagues have eagerly done, merely to end with a bit of egg on their sage faces when cognitive sciences proved Boyd not them right.) Altogether, then, I think the arguments you quote need to be reanalyzed and rethought.

[Frank Hoffman]

Am not quite sure that we need to continue militarizing the entire national security community. See today's WashPost on that item. Gen. Honore has served his nation well, but he's a late convert to homeland security, and while with the Joint staff, in testimony to the National Security Commission evidenced the usual reluctance for military leaders to think outside the box. He argued strongly against the military's involvement in domestic disasters and wanted to continue the traditional focus on Fighting and Winning our Nation's Wars (very kinetically). I do realize that the General has distinquished himself on several fronts, but I'd rather see someone from FEMA's ranks or the nation's emergency management community take the lead, as long as they envision FEMA as the core/lead for the nation's single incident/all hazards management authority.