Introduction

The U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) Engineers have been instrumental in supporting the Commissioned Corps’ mission to protect, promote, and advance the health and safety of our Nation, through work with their respective Agencies and by serving on deployments. Agency work often allows for an abundance of resources and time, which may not always be the case while on PHS deployment. Deployments can demand skill sets, resources, and experiences that may not be readily available to the engineer. The lack of knowledge and experience can be a barrier to effective mission completion.

The Deployment Support Team (DST) was formed to assist and support US PHS engineers increase their mission effectiveness and to strive for excellence. The team is organized within the EPAC Readiness Subcommittee and comprises experienced and knowledgeable multidisciplinary engineers. A DST representative will be available 24 hours and seven day a week to connect the requesting engineer with professional advice or technical support for any engineering tasks/issues while on deployment. The DST maintains a repository of resources (guidelines, spreadsheets, and documents), some created specifically for deployments, to better assist engineers in need. The DST typically has two officers per discipline/role (others may be added depending upon the expertise required) that are able to support an officer with their technical support need.

Additionally, the DST technical support is also offered to engineers serving in remote locations who are in need of additional resources to support their agency duties.

The EPAC’s DST members outlined in this document were specifically selected for the team due to a number of selection criteria, in order to be selected for the team, each member must:

• Maintain a PE or equivalent licensure/certification in their respective fields.
• Minimum of five years of experience performing at the professional level (or equivalent).
• Obtained a recommendation/referral for the DST specific position (but may self-nominate with this recommendation included)

All DST team members are selected to serve for a three-year term (with a two-term limit).