Sailors and Marines help un- load supplies in Japan. Op- eration Tomodachi offered relief after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
FY 2009, AFRICOM, EUCOM, SOUTHCOM, PACOM, and CENT- COM all participated in humanitari- an-assistance missions.
The annual humanitarian Two yearly exercises focus on hu- manitarian assistance. Continuing Promise is a SOUTHCOM initia- tive. In 2011, the hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH-20) is scheduled to provide medical and veterinary care in Central and South America and the Caribbean. In 2010, servicemem- bers embarked on the USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) and provided assistance in Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Nicaragua, Panama, and Suriname. Pacifi c Partnership is PACOM-
U.S. sailors in Japan help a woman salvage fishing equipment in March 2011.
sponsored and grew out of the relief eff ort following the 2004 tsunami that ravaged Indonesia. Though U.S. forces had been involved in 366 humanitarian missions from 1970 through 2000, according to the U.S. Navy, that tsunami was a turning point. The III Marine Expeditionary Force led the U.S. relief eff ort that in- cluded 22 U.S. ships, but the U.S. was just one of many players responding to a disaster unlike anything it had experienced. The U.S. worked closely with other nations, NGOs, and pri- vate volunteer organizations. During Pacifi c Partnership 2011,
An Army combat medic with Operation Pacific Part- nership 2011 teaches first aid in Papua New Guinea.
the USS Cleveland (LPD-7) will visit the nations of East Timor, the Fed- erated States of Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, and Vanuatu de- livering humanitarian and environ- mental assistance. Formerly known as Operation Unifi ed Endeavor, Pa- cifi c Partnership will bring together the U.S., partner nations, and NGOs as a single force. Because of Pacifi c
DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE
Click here to watch a video slideshow depicting the U.S. military’s con- tribution to disaster relief eff orts in Pakistan, where record-setting rainfall in July 2010 caused widespread fl ooding that displaced millions.
PHOTOS/IMAGES: TKTK JULY 2011 MILITARY OFFICER 55
Partnership, more than 300,000 patients have received preventive- medicine services and more than 150 engineering projects have been com- pleted in over a dozen countries in the Pacifi c region over the past fi ve years. In 2010, Pacifi c Partnership brought assistance to Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, and Vietnam. The Navy has seen the value of HA/DR and has embraced the ser- vice’s pivotal role in such eff orts. In 2007, with a fl eet of fewer than 300 ships, the Navy added HA/DR as one of its seven service capabilities. The 2010 Naval Operations Concept devotes an entire chapter to HA/DR. The chief of naval operations and the heads of the Marine Corps and Coast Guard signed off on the document supporting the Navy’s vision for its ramped-up presence.
Crisis response In the area of disaster response, the U.S. Agency for International Devel- opment (USAID) reigns supreme. Founded in 1961, USAID is an inde- pendent agency that provides ongo- ing economic, developmental, and humanitarian assistance worldwide in support of U.S. foreign policy goals. When asked about disaster assistance, the State Department de- fers to USAID. “We defi ne HA and DR a little
more narrowly than DoD. We see them as almost one and the same,” says one USAID offi cial who works closely with DoD. It is a big job for an 8,000-person
agency, but USAID has the talents of other players in its toolbox. DoD is just one such instrument. USAID will go to the mili- [CONTINUES ON PAGE 69]
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