EMSI Begins U.S. Coast Guard ICS Training Contract

Crewmembers from Coast Guard Station Honolulu transport members of the Honolulu Police Department Specialized Services Division aboard a 45-foot Response Boat-Medium offshore of Honolulu, Sept. 26, 2016. Station Honolulu served as a platform for HPD to conduct underway ship-boarding exercises aboard the Star of Honolulu. (U.S. Coast Guard photos by Petty Officer 2nd Class Tara Molle/Released)

EMSI is excited to have recently started work under our new five-year contract to the U.S. Coast Guard, providing advanced Incident Command System position and team training to their responders.  Kicking off in November, the contract began with the delivery of a combination ICS 430/440 Operations Section Chief/Planning Section Chief course, followed by an ICS-410 Incident Commander course in December.  Looking forward into 2018, EMSI has over a dozen courses are currently scheduled, including several ICS-620 Area Command courses for the Coast Guard Districts and their partners.

EMSI has a rich history with the Coast Guard.  For over a decade, EMSI provided ICS training design and practical expertise to the Coast Guard as their original ICS training support contractor, assisting with the overall ICS implementation program and the development, revision, and delivery of multiple ICS courses.  From 2000-2012, EMSI developed all-hazards ICS training courses for the Coast Guard at a time when the FEMA all-hazards ICS curriculum was not yet developed.  This curriculum, consistent with National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) ICS training, helped the Coast Guard build one of the nation’s leading all-hazards ICS programs.

In addition to serving as the national ICS training support contractor, EMSI provided extensive support to the Coast Guard during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, serving in various capacities at the Area Command in Louisiana, the Incident Command Posts in Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida, the Forward Operating Bases throughout the Gulf, and 18 Operational Branches.  Over a nine-month period, EMSI was called upon to provide over 80 Type 1 and 2 ICS qualified personnel, demonstrating not only the depth of our team, but our ability to serve as incident management advisors and provide “just-in-time” training to Coast Guard personnel.

For this contract, EMSI leverages our diverse and expertly qualified team of ICS practitioners that include Type 1 qualified personnel with wildland fire, all-hazards, and Coast Guard incident management experience.  The team also includes several Area Command qualified personnel to instruct ICS-620 courses. Our current cadre of response professionals continues to grow more diverse in their qualifications and backgrounds as we support our clients in real world events, as well as preparedness training, bringing lessons learned to the classroom while improving our client’s proficiencies across a wide spectrum of circumstances and incident types.

A U.S. Coast Guard Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) founded in 2000, EMSI is a premier all-hazards, full-service, multi-discipline incident management and emergency management services and solutions provider, specializing in multiple aspects of incident management and emergency management, including all-hazards ICS and IMT training, exercises, development, and program support.  A global leader in the training and application of the ICS, EMSI has been serving the government and private sector all-hazards incident management community for nearly two decades.  To learn more about EMSI and how we can help your organization’s response preparedness and ICS training programs, please visit www.emsics.com.