US Army: 2005Sept-Oct

8/14/2019 US Army: 2005Sept-Oct

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Crosscurrents

Vol. 28, No. 9 September - October 2005

District personnel support recoveryfrom Gulf Coast hurricane



Crosscurrents September-October 2005

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Crosscurrents

Crosscurrents is an unofficial publication,authorized under the provisions of AR360-1. It is published monthly for theSt. Paul District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Editorial views and opinions are notnecessarily those of the Corps of Engineers, nor of the Department of the Army.

Address all inquiries to:

Editor,Crosscurrents

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers190 Fifth Street EastSt. Paul, MN 55101-1638

P h o n e : 651-290-5202

District Engineer Col. Michael PfenningPublic Affairs Chief Mark DavidsonMedia Specialist Shannon BauerEditor Peter VerstegenE-mail: [email protected]

District supportshurricane recovery;hurricane responsedelays newpersonnel systemBy Col. Mike PfenningDistrict Commander

Editor’s note: Col. Pfenning wrote this column on the eve of his tour of duty in Louisiana.

It’s time forme to provide

you a brief update in fourareas:

• St. PaulDistrict supportto Task Force

Hope and the recovery missionsfrom hurricanes Katrina and Rita;

• Your support to ongoing non-

emergency assistance St. PaulDistrict missions;

• National Security PersonnelSystem implementation; and

• My upcoming Oct. 4

deployment to Louisiana.I know that you join me in

reaching out to the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita inwhatever means is appropriate toyour personal and professionallives. The devastation in the statesof Louisiana, Mississippi andAlabama from Katrina and Rita isan order of magnitude greater thanwhat we as a country have everexperienced from a naturaldisaster.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues its outstandingwork primarily in support of theFederal Emergency ManagementAgency, carrying out a widevariety of recovery missions inresponse to the hurricanes.

In addition to our efforts to getthe water out of New Orleans, weare also providing services

throughout Louisiana, Mississippiand Alabama, to include providingice, water and temporary power;as well as debris removal andtemporary roofing. As I write this,the St. Paul District has 74personnel deployed as part of theCorps’ force of more than 3,100employees assisting in therecovery.

That recovery effort willcontinue for many months. Forevery one of our deployedpersonnel, there are folksremaining behind that must pick uptheir duties and responsibilities.Thank you for your exceptionalteamwork in supporting ourdeployees.

Even as we do our part in

assisting the Mississippi ValleyDivision in the hurricanerecovery, the district remainscommitted to meeting our projectdelivery milestones to our regional

customers and partners withinavailable funding. Year-endcloseout is always a huge task.Accomplishing it concurrentlywith a major disaster responsetakes teamwork and dedication –traits that you all demonstrate ona daily basis. You continue tomeet that challenge.

As many of you are aware, thedistrict was scheduled to beginimplementation of the NationalSecurity Personnel System thisfall for our general scheduleemployees as part of MississippiValley Division in the Spiral 1.1portion of the NSPSimplementation plan, includingessential training for the affectedemployees and their supervisors.The final NSPS regulations areexpected to be published verysoon. The labor relations portion

of the regulations will be effective30 days later and the otherportions – including pay bandingand pay for performance – will bephased in subsequently, beginningwith Spiral 1.1.

In light of the ongoing hurricanerecovery efforts and the delayedapproval of the final NSPSregulations, Mississippi ValleyDivision requested approval for adelay in our NSPS implementationtime-line – for the division to bemoved into the Spiral 1.3 portion– a delay of about six months inthe original time-line. We willneed to stay informed andengaged so that our projectdelivery and management team

Recovery , continued Page 3



CrosscurrentsSeptember-October 2005

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will be positioned for success inSpiral 1.3.

Participation by divisionemployees who were nominated

and selected to participate in theupcoming NSPS train-the-trainercourses is still to be determined.As such, the autumn town hallmeetings that we had planned tocover the details of the NSPSimplementation plan will bepostponed until at least January.

Your levels of professionalismand technical competence inspireme to be a better commander anddistrict engineer every day.

I must now take what you’vetaught me in leadership andmission execution over the last 14months and apply it to the regionaldivision recovery mission, wherethose skills are needed most.Beginning Oct. 4, I will deploy toBaton Rouge, La., for a period of at least 30 days to contribute tothis effort. During my deployment,

Recovery , continued from Page 2

Inside this issue

our deputy district commander, Lt.Col. John Kunkle, will assume myresponsibilities as the acting StPaul District commander. Whilethe deployment of a district

commander in support of disasterrecovery is unprecedented, I amconfident you will continue toexecute all of our day-to-daymissions in the same exceptionalmanner that you have in the past,providing Kunkle the outstandingsupport he’ll need to make thetough decisions while I’mdeployed.

In closing, please continue tokeep the people of the Gulf Coastin your thoughts and prayers;continue to meet our commitmentsto our partners, our stakeholders,the region and the nation; andcontinue to do the great things thatyou do every day to make theCorps of Engineers a world classorganization that is relevant, ready,responsive and reliable.

Essayons!

District supports hurricane recovery; hurricane response delaysnew personnel system ...................................................... Page 2

District supports hurricane response, recovery ............. Page 4

Corps restores De Lisle, Miss., fire department ............. Page 5

Restored memorial lifts town’s spirit ............................... Page 6

Island clearing logs $1,700 for district ............................. Page 7

Father, daughter meet in Iraq ............................................ Page 8

Grandma, granddaughter don hard hats for hurricane .. Page 8

Retirees gather for 30th annual reunion .................. Pages 9-10

Nancy Peck: August Employee of the Month .................Page 10

Next month

Photo by Kurt Brownell

The district held a public grandopening and dedicationceremony Sept. 22 for therenovated Lock and Dam 8,

located on the Upper MississippiRiver at Genoa, Wis., about 22miles south of La Crosse, Wis.From left: Pete Schwab ofSchwab Company, thecontractor; Melissa Gulan,eastern area engineer; and Col.MIke Pfenning, districtcommander.

Photo by Mark Davidson

Mike Emmons, a lockoperator at Lock and Dam5A, Fountain City, Wis., isworking debris removalmission for the Corps inMississippi. He deployedSept. 12.

Savannah District graphic




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Disaster recovery volunteers meet to discuss the debris removalmission, Sept. 22, at the Mississippi Recovery Office, EmergencyRecovery Office-West in Hancock County. From the left are:Jonathan Polk, debris team member from Tulsa District; Jonathan

Hanson, debris team member from St. Paul District, Gull Lakerecreation site; Danny Phelps, debris team quality assurance leaderfrom Louisville District; and Larry Jones, congressional liaison fromRock Island District.

Photo by Shannon Bauer


Kari Layman, St. Paul Districtengineering and construction,managed installation of portablebuildings, such as schools andcity halls, in Mississippi.

Carol Davis (left), a park ranger for Vicksburg District, confers withKenton Spading, St. Paul District engineering and construction.Spading worked on the portable building mission in Mississippi. Atright, behind him, is the emergency deployable tactical operationscenter, a moble command post, parked at Keesler Air Force Base,Biloxi, Miss. Spading returned to the district Oct. 8.


District supportsHurricane Katrinaresponse, recoveryBy Peter Verstegen

More than 100 St. Paul Districtpersonnel have deployed toMississippi and Louisiana, some asearly as August 27, to supportresponse and recovery fromHurricane Katrina, a category fourhurricane that devastated the Gulf Coast states in late August-earlySeptember. By mid-October, 35had returned and four wereexpected to deploy.

The district worked under theauthority of the FederalEmergency Management Agencyto conduct quality assurance oncontractor debris removal, supportemergency response and recoveryoffices, assist in recovery planning,support specific FEMA missions,manage the portable buildingmission and provide administrativeand other support services.




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Corps restoresDe Lisle, Miss., firedepartmentBy Shannon Bauer

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rolled in its first mobilehome for a public entity in supportof the Mississippi HurricaneKatrina recovery operationsSept. 22.

The agency hooked up thebuilding’s utilities and turned overthe keys to the De Lisle FireDepartment Sept. 25.

The temporary building is beingused by the fire department until itcan replace its own home, whichKatrina completely destroyed. Thisbuilding was the first of many thatthe Corps, under the direction andfunding of FEMA, is providing tolocal governments in Mississippi.Installing the mobile homes enablescity and county governmentworkers to go back to work andprovide essential services to local

citizens.Kenton Spading, initial Corps’project manager, said the De Lislesite was selected to receive thefirst trailer because it already hadpower and water located nearby,and it didn’t have too much debristo clear.

Other similar projects the Corpsis working on in Mississippi, hecontinued, to name a few, includeanother fire department inHenderson Point; a city hall andpolice department for Gulfport; anew sewer and water office andlab for Diamondhead; a five-building complex for Waveland;and a court house complex forHancock County.

A composite crew, made up of

both Corps of Engineers’employees and Mississippi NationalGuard members, prepared the DeLisle site for the placement of themobile home. Starting work at thesite Sept. 17, the crew tore downthe old fire department andprepared the ground with clay andtop soil. When the building arrived,they secured it to the site andhooked up electrical and sewer lines.

“The building was available, sothe work went fast,” said currentCorps’ project manager DaveKitzman, St. Paul Districtelectrician, Lock and Dam 5. “Thisis a coup for the Corps. We’reshowing them [local governments]we’re here, we’re going to stick around, and we’re going to helpthem rebuild.”

Photos by Oscar Reihsmann

De Lisle, Miss., now has a fire department, thanks to Dave Kitzmann(left), an electrician at Lock and Dam 5, Minnesota City, Minn., and

Jimmy Carver, Grenada Project Management Office, VicksburgDistrict. Hurricane Katrina destroyed the previous station.

Phil Nelson, Vicksburg District, examines electrical connections forthe temporary fire department installed by the Corps of Engineers.




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By Shannon Bauer

“We didn’t want any glory fromthis,” said Tim Taylor, whonormally works at the VicksburgDistrict’s Lake Enid site but iscurrently deployed to Hancock County, Miss., in support of Operation Task Force Hope. “We

just did it for the vets. If it weren’tfor them, we wouldn’t even behere.”

Taylor, along with other deployedVicksburg employees ChrisBeardain, Lake Enid; JoeyCapwell, Lake Enid; and RobertUpchurch, Lake Sardis, voluntarilyrequested and received permissionfrom Corps’ leadership to clean upthe Waveland, Miss., Veteran’sMemorial, located on the city’sbeach.

Hurricane Katrina overturnedcolumns at the monument andcovered it with sand and debris, aswell as left big holes in the sandalongside the sidewalk that leadsup to the structure. The monument,built by American Legion Post 77in Waveland, sits in a neighborhoodcompletely decimated by the storm.What remains of the post, locateda block or so behind the monument,is only a cement slab.

“A vet came up here when wefirst started, and he had tears in hiseyes,” said Upchurch. “He didn’tsay anything. He didn’t have to.”

In one day, the Corps’ teamcleaned off the monument, rightedthe columns and filled the holeswith fresh sand. The following day,they cleaned the sand out of theparking lot to allow people to visit

the site. Even before the crew hadfinished their job, Upchurch said,

more than 200 people had stoppedby. “They sit at the monument andstare off into the Gulf,” heexplained.

The good work caught on. Ontheir own initiative, members of the223 rd Engineering Brigade, or “Lt.Col. Jimmy Stringer’s guys,” fromthe Mississippi National Guardinstalled a makeshift, wooden flagpole and brand new American flag.Since the monument’s three flagpoles are missing, the Soldiersinserted the pole inside a basinused to retire American flags.

Within hours, at least 50 Soldiersworking in the city, from allservices, had signed the pole withtheir rank, name and date.

Restored memorial liftstown’s spirit

Chris Beardain (left) and Tim Taylor, both Vicksburg District, set upcolumns knocked down during Hurricane Katrina.

Photos by Shannon Bauer

Soldiers from the MississippiNational Guard installed amakeshift, wooden flag poleand brand new American flag(above). The pole bears thesignatures of more than 50Soldiers.




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Island clearing logs$1,700 for districtBy Kurt BrownellNatural Resource Specialist

As of Oct. 7, the St. PaulDistrict has made just under $1,700on the sales of logs, thanks to anenvironmental restoration programcoordinated through the naturalresources project office inLa Crescent, Minn.

Flash back to April 15, when 54Badger Challenge Cadets landedon Goose Island, Corps-ownedland on the Mississippi River three

miles south of La Crosse, Wis.The cadets joined Kurt Brownell,

natural resources specialist; JonSobiech, forester; and Jerry Lee,ranger (now retired), to clear awayblack locust as the first step in re-establishing a diverse bottomlandhardwood forest at this site. Thisproject started in September 2004and is the first phase in controllingan invasive species that covershundreds of acres on Goose Island,as well as elsewhere in the district.(See December 2004Crosscurrents ).

Badger Challenge is an 11-year-old program operated by theWisconsin National Guard,designed for at-risk youths from 14to 16 years old.

The program teaches cadets toget their lives back in order byparticipating in a rigorous 17-

hours-a-day schedule, includingphysical training, classroom work and environmental work projects.The cadet program acceptsvolunteers only (no court orders);and since the first class in 1994,the academy has graduatedhundreds of young men andwomen and given them new

direction in their lives.The cadets typically provide

labor for environmental projects atFort McCoy, Wis.

Brownell inquired with theacademy to see whether they wereavailable for off-post work andarranged for their work at GooseIsland.

The cadets assisted the Corps inconsolidating black locust logs intopiles to facilitate their sale andchipping logging debris not suitable

St. Paul District photo

Kurt Brownell, natural resource specialist, briefs the BadgerChallenge Cadets prior to beginning work on Goose Island on theMississippi River about three miles south of La Crosse, Wis.


Cadets fed black locust branches on Goose Island into the woodchipper. Their volunteer work helped generate $1,700 in log sales.

for sale. The cadets learned aboutinvasive species and the Corps’efforts to eliminate them. TheCorps benefited by receiving no-cost assistance from the cadets.

Thanks to the cadets help, thesite has now been cleared of logging debris.

They sorted and stacked logs foreasier removal with outcomes thatenriched the cadets and thedistrict.




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From Minnesota toMississippi, recoveryefforts became afamily affair whengrandma andgranddaughter,donned Corps hardhats to support Task

Grandma and granddaughterdon hard hats for hurricane

Photo by Mark Davidson

Photo courtesyGeorgia Stanonik

Force Hope to assist recovery from HurricaneKatrina’s damage in Mississippi. Georgia Stanonik,(right) office of counsel, worked at Keesler Air ForceBase, Biloxi, Miss., while her granddaughter, SydneyLencowski (above left), sized up a hard hat worn byStanonik.

“It is great here,” said Stanonik. “The people arereally nice. My roommate is a nurse, and she is thegreatest. The days and dates are running together. Iam inputting data all-day long.” She volunteered for a30-day tour of duty. Stanonik returned to St. PaulOct. 17.

Gull Lake Loon count highestsince 1999

Gregg Struss, Gull Lake Recreation Area resourcemanager, reported the Loon survey for 2005registered 61 Loons at Gull Lake. Only 1999 washigher, at 64 Loons. This year’s count included 14

juveniles and 47 adults.

2nd Lt. Jennifer Thompson (left) met her father,Chief Warrant Officer Jim Thompson, when theycrossed paths at Logistics Support Area Anaconda inIraq, Oct. 9. “They haven’t seen each other since sheleft for Fort Hachuca, Ariz., for training in June 2004,”said Marge Thompson, regulatory branch. Marge isJennifer’s mother and Jim’s wife. “Dad will be cominghome as daughter is deployed,” she said. Jim wascompleting his year-long tour of duty with the 457thTransportation Battalion in Iraq and Jennifer isbeginning a year-long tour with the 221st MilitaryIntelligence Battalion. The 457th is based at FortSnelling, Minn.

Photo courtesy Marjorie Thompson

Father, daughter meet in Iraq

News and Notes

Holiday Awards set for Dec. 16The St. Paul District will hold its Holiday Awards

Ceremony at The Prom Center, I-94 and InwoodAve., Oakdale, Minn., Dec. 16.

Dale Britnall, operations division, is event manager.The contact for retirees is Jan Pream, operationsdivision, at 651-290-5312.




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Photo by Peter Verstegen

Above: members of the St. Paul District Hall of Fame joined thenewest member, Mary Kay Linder, center, in Eagan, Minn., Sept. 8.From left are retirees Pete Fischer, engineering; Dave Haumersen,construction-operations; Linder, secretary in the executive office; BillSpychalla, project management; Jim Kursu, project management; St.Paul District Commander Col. Mike Pfenning and Lou Kowalski,deputy district engineer and chief, programs and projectmanagement. Below: the majority of retirees paused for a groupphoto outside after the reunion.

Mary Jane Trcka (left) and AnnAllen, both retired from resourcemanagement.

Photo by Jon Lyman

Photo by Marc Krumholz

Retirees gather for 30thannual reunion

Photo by Jon Lyman

Above are Dennis Erickson (left),construction-operations, andCraig Hinton, resourcemanagement.




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Nancy Peck honored as AugustEmployee of the Month

Liz Dvorak, civilian personnel, nominated Nancy Peck for August Employee of the Month. The awards committee skipped the July award due to support of emergency response to

Hurricane Katrina and Task Force Hope.

Nancy Peck, the cook-steward on the Dredge William A.Thompson, opened her home this summer to a student employeefrom the Maine Maritime Academy, Castine, Maine, assigned to theThompson.

Angel Stellmach joined the dredge crew May 9. She attends theacademy, but her family’s permanent residence is in the Twin Cities.For most of the summer, she was assigned to travel, eat and sleepaboard the Thompson with the rest of the crew. Since the dredgewas not be out of port until May 16, Stellmach was left in a quandaryfor her first week as a St. Paul District employee.

The available choices were to delay her start date and miss anopportunity for an in-depth orientation and small craft operatortraining; commute the distance between the Twin Cities and FountainCity, Wis.; or incur hotel expenses in the Fountain City area – anexpense not in a typical student budget.

Peck presented a fourth option to Stellmach – stay at Peck’s homeuntil the dredge left port. The personal generosity and workplaceloyalty that Peck showed in doing this is no surprise to those whoknow her. Peck’s positive attitude, enthusiasm and pride in her work and in the dredge are evident to anyone she meets.

Nancy Peck (right), the cook-steward on the Dredge William A.Thompson, receives recognition as August Employee of theMonth from Arley Martin, master of the dredge.



Rose Braatz, retireed from theold construction-operationsdivision, published St. Croix

Tales and Trails this summer.The book presents a history ofthe St. Croix Falls, Wis., regioncompiled from her years ofinterviewing and writingstories about local people,places and events. For moreinformation, contact Braatz at715-483-3046 or e-mail her [email protected].


Sheryl Hurley (left), retired fromcontracting, caught up ondistrict happenings at theretirees’ reunion Sept. 8 withMarianne Price, equalemployment opportunityofficer.

US Army: 2005Sept-Oct

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