Mobile, AL - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, South Atlantic Division Commander Brig. Gen. Diana Holland spoke at a conference and toured Mobile District, Aug. 31, while visiting the Mobile District headquarters. It was Holland’s first visit to Mobile since taking command, July 18.
Holland, the first female commander of the South Atlantic Division, started her district tour by being the first speaker of the day at the 35th Annual Tennessee-Tombigbee (Tenn-Tom) Waterway Development Opportunities Conference, in Point Clear, Ala.
She told the waterway officials in attendance that the Tenn-Tom is very important to the history of the Corps of Engineers and very important to the local economy.
“I don’t have a crystal ball,” said Holland. “But it seems to be an exciting time for those involved in infrastructure, especially water-resources infrastructure. This group is at the center of the action. With renewed interest in international trade and the expansion of navigation facilities up and down our coast, there’s a lot of energy and a lot of resources going into that and it does seem like a promising future.”
After lunch, Holland joined the Mobile District’s senior staff for a command brief at the District headquarters in downtown Mobile. Holland also received a briefing from the district’s Readiness Support Center, or RSC. The RSC’s director, Kent Simon, gave an overview of the RSC’s training, exercises, accreditation and modeling capabilities.
Before departing Mobile, Holland traveled to the district’s Deployable Tactical Operations System, or DTOS. The DTOS is a coordination of personnel and equipment that together provide critical communications in the event of a significant man-made or natural disaster in the United States.
Three Mobile District DTOS units are deployed in support of Hurricane Harvey. All three units are currently in the Houston area where two of the teams are monitoring critical flood-control projects and one unit is serving as a command and support center for the emergency response leadership.