By Fred W. Baker III American Forces Press Service FORWARD OPERATING BASE MANDRIN, Haiti, June 20, 2011 - Stepping off the Black Hawk helicopter here, the scene is similar to that of many forward operating bases in Afghanistan.
But a walk down the makeshift gravel road that cuts through the heart of the site reveals one glaring omission. Weapons. Gone are the big war machines decked out in armor and firepower. And the 400 troops here are not slinging M4 machine guns, grenade launchers and sundry belts of ammunition. Make no mistake. The weapons are here, just not in sight. "We try to minimize the exposure of the weapons," Army Maj. Wynn Nugent, operations officer for Task Force Bon Voizen, said. "It sends a bad message, especially being here on a humanitarian exercise. We still carry them because we need to, but we try not to display them." Perched on high ground in the Artibonite department, or province, the troops deployed here operate similarly in many ways to operations overseas. Almost all of the U.S. military services are combined for a joint mission. Also, a handful of foreign militaries have teams here. They form up under a single command structure to carry out their operations with military precision. And the site is almost entirely self-sufficient. Only local fuel and some transportation are contracted. Satellites and radio antennas jut from the tent tops providing communications locally and to and from the states. Thousands of gallons of water are pumped and purified daily from an on-site well for the troops. Food and vegetables are shipped in and trucked to the chow hall where hot meals are provided daily. Helicopters buzz in and out delivering fresh troops and discharging those returning home. But that is pretty much where the comparisons stop. Task Force Bon Voizen, which translates as "good neighbor," serves as a picture-perfect image of the U.S. military's soft-power efforts, and the task force's only enemies here are time and budget. While the troops call leaving the base "going outside the wire," it is actually a few flimsy strands of concertina, easily infiltrated by guineas, dogs, pigs and the occasional donkey. Its primary purpose is to keep people from walking through the base camp to visit those living in the surrounding community. "When they see it, they don't come through," Nugent said. "It's for their safety more than ours. We have machinery moving through here, big vehicles moving around." The Haitian government chose this region for the task force's efforts, chiefly because of the influx of residents after last year's earthquake. Thousands left the devastated Port-au-Prince area, seeking food, shelter and jobs in the surrounding rural areas. The Artibonite area is about 70 miles northwest of Port-au-Prince, and Haitian officials would rather improve the infrastructure here than have the displaced return to the already overcrowded inner city that is still struggling to recover. Since the task force began its mission at the end of April, it has treated more than 800 dental patients and nearly 23,000 medical patients. That includes delivering a few babies, providing emergency surgery and constructing a mouthpiece for a child born with a cleft palate so that he can eventually learn to talk. Its veterinary technicians treated almost 1,500 area animals. And the engineers will leave here next week after building one school, two clinics and bathroom facilities. For their efforts, the troops here have received "nothing but love," Nugent said. "What we're doing here is a drop in the bucket for what these people need, truthfully. But we're providing them just a glimmer of hope," Nugent said. "We show them, 'Hey, the world's not giving up on you. We're here and we're fighting for you.'" Nugent said the locals are poor by American standards, but they are easygoing and hardworking. Some gather outside the fence, but they are just curious. "You don't see a lot of begging. If they are asking for something, they are asking for a job," he said. "They want to work and earn what they receive. They are not just looking for a handout. "They love America. They love Americans. I think they would be the 51st state if we let them," Nugent added and laughed. But while Nugent joked, it is exactly that sentiment that U.S. officials hope to instill, especially in these years following the earthquake. "The real value is ... we're having incredible positive impact on the lives of disenfranchised Haitians," Dan Foote, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy said during a visit to the site today. "And in doing so, we're also sending the broader message that the United States is a friend of Haiti, and we are going to be here in the good times and the bad." Foote called Haiti a "great friend" to the United States. Exercises such as these are critical to maintaining that relationship, he added. "This is an on-the-ground example of real, tangible assistance to the population," he said. The task force is commanded by members of the Louisiana National Guard, but troops from other states have joined in for two-week rotations including Florida, Massachusetts, Georgia, North Dakota, Colorado and New York. The Army Reserve provided military police and engineers. Active-duty Marines provide civil affairs support, and the Air Force provides weathermen and medical staff. Foreign countries supporting the efforts as an official part of the task force included doctors from Colombia and Canada and engineers from Belize. Additional support also came from the U.N. peacekeeping force here as Japanese engineers volunteered to help on a project. Policemen from Argentina provided crowd control at medical and dental sites in the cities. And international nongovernmental organizations such as People to People International and Operation International Children donated 2,500 school supply kits for the task force to distribute. This year's exercise launched from a similar operation here last year, put in place to help with earthquake relief. Budget cuts already have tightened the belt of this year's operation as it transitioned from operational funding to an exercise with a different funding pot. An exercise isn't planned for next year, but one is on the books for 2013, officials said. Only a handful of events remain before the closing ceremonies next week. The rest of the month will be spent returning the land that the base now sits on to its original condition. The last task force member is due to leave the first week of July after settling all of the contracts and paying the vendors. But even as task force members prepare to leave, officials agree that the impression made here will last, for many locals, a lifetime. And, as Washington begins it budget battles and senior Defense Department leaders are forced to make hard funding choices, military and civilian officials here hope that this exercise doesn't end up on the cutting room floor. "These are the sort of things that don't create political messages, but create human messages," Foote said. "Our hope here, from my point of things, is that we can continue to do exercises and missions like this into the future, because every time we do that we win a new generation of hearts and minds." | ||||||||||||
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Showing posts with label Haiti. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Haiti. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Task Force Delivers 'Human Message' To Haiti
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Haitians transfer wood and other supplies from trucks to boats
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Air Force Medical Service Works Around Challenges
By Ian Graham Special to American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON : The military has a well-known knack for building modern facilities in remote locations to support servicemembers. In the wake of disasters like this week's earthquake in the Caribbean, the services have stepped up to use their deployable assets, especially hospitals, to help Haitians.
The primary capabilities the Air Force is concerned with in Haiti, Mavity said, are primary and preventive care, surgical capability and some intensive holding capacity. The footprint is small, he said, with at most perhaps 25 beds available. The idea, he said, is to get the patients stable enough to be moved to a location where they can be better treated. Mavity said though eight of Haiti's hospitals were damaged to the point of inoperability, the majority of their medical facilities are up and running, though they're strained by the volume of injuries that need to be treated. "The capabilities of those facilities, even before the earthquake, were very limited in their capacity – both in size and in availability of equipment and medications," he said. "[Now] they're being overwhelmed by the demand." It's difficult to set up hospitals and bases on the island, Mavity said, because the earthquake damaged what little open space was left. So while components are setting up at the airport in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince, they're quickly running out of room. Getting services out to other cities on the island, where the damage, in some cases, is worse, has been one of the biggest challenge for first responders from the Air Force, Mavity said. The nature of their capability -- quick stabilizing response and patient movement -- makes the airport an ideal location, especially because the medical facilities are so stripped down. The size of the operation does allow for flexibility in operating farther from the airport, he said, but there are special challenges related to that. Power and water supplies, shelter for troops, force protection and vehicles aren't an "organic" asset for the medical stations, so they have to rely on other military or other agencies' infrastructure, the colonel explained. They can't operate independently wherever they want to set up shop. "The difficulty is, because our platforms are so light and lean, we are very dependent. ... We have to be married with some base operating support elements," he said. "That begins to play into the algebra of where we can actually put [facilities]." Mavity said the personnel on the ground in Haiti, in addition to beginning medical relief efforts, also are looking forward to seeing how best to work around the issue of location, and how best to create the "air bridge" that will connect their first-response facilities to better-equipped hospitals, such as the Navy's hospital ship USNS Comfort, which is en route. "Some of those folks are working the whole command-and-control elements and site assessment, as well as being very helpful in the initial discussions with our [Air Mobility Command] and [U.S. Transportation Command] folks to start thinking about how best to build this air bridge for patient movement, and exactly how much we'll need, and what kind of folks we're going to need to get that done effectively," Mavity said. "I can't thank those folks enough for the fantastic job they've done." As the initial team and additional forces combine, they'll work to get the best of their capabilities, and hope to move some assets into the cities, where they can help more people, Mavity said. "The Air Force Medical Service has that very unique ability to get the right care to the right people in a very short amount of time," he said. "I think we're doing a fantastic job of that, and we'll continue to do so over the days and weeks to follow." (Issued on : Jan 16, 2010) (Ian Graham works in the Defense Media Activity's emerging media directorate.) | ||||
| Related Sites: Air Force Medical Service "DoDLive" Bloggers Roundtable Special Report: Haiti Earthquake Relief | ||||
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Saturday, January 16, 2010
USNS Comfort Readies to Leave for Haiti
By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service BALTIMORE : Early last spring, Navy Capt. James Ware was preparing his crew aboard the hospital ship USNS Comfort for a humanitarian assistance mission in Haiti, the first stop during a four-month swing through the region.
Comfort will leave its home port here early tomorrow and is expected to arrive in Haiti by Jan. 21, delivering a full spectrum of medical and surgical services aboard one of the country's largest trauma facilities. "This is a moment when we feel we can have a huge impact," along with other military medical providers already on the ground, as well as those from nongovernmental organizations and the international community, Ware said. "Our hope is to work with those individuals, side by side, to truly help the people of Haiti." USNS Comfort will deliver immense capability to the mission. The hulking hospital ship -- three football fields long and one wide – has 250 hospital beds and a 550-person medical team that includes trauma surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, head and neck surgeons, eye surgeons and obstetricians and gynecologists. The team also will include medical professionals from the Navy, Army, Air Force and U.S. Public Health Service, as well as nongovernmental organizations. Ware said he expects his staff to initially see about 500 patients a day when it arrives in Haiti, working up to 750 or more, and to conduct 20 to 25 surgical procedures a day. But his big focus today was on getting the ship manned, equipped and provisioned for the mission ahead. A massive logistical effort was under way to load the food, water and medical supplies the crew -- most from the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., but also from its sister hospitals in Portsmouth, Va., and San Diego, Calif. -- will need. Two cranes worked simultaneously, hoisting palletized loads of bottled water, packaged meals and other supplies to Comfort's upper decks. Meanwhile, a long line of tractor trailers that began arriving last night idled nearby, waiting to offload their supplies. Engine roars mingled with the ever-present "beep-beep-beep" of forklifts scurrying in almost every direction alongside the vessel. Navy Petty Officer 1st Lamar McDavis, based at the National Naval Medical Center, kept his checklist handy to keep track of the loading process. "It's going to be a long day here," he said, noting that he expects to load as many as 800 pallets by the day's end, compressing into just one day what typically would take about three. "We're doing this fast, but it can't be fast enough," McDavis said. "People are suffering, and the quicker we get help to them, the better off they will be." USNS Comfort initially will carry enough food and water to sustain its crew – 550 medical specialists and 250 mariners and staff to provide security, communications and other shipboard support – and the patients who will fill its 250 hospital beds for up to 60 days, Ware said. In addition, the ship has enough medical supplies aboard to support a 60-day combat casualty care mission, he said. Ware said he's confident he'll have everything he needs on board to proceed directly to Haiti without having to stop anywhere else en route to pick up additional crew or supplies. "We have pushed forward on this end to make sure we have the right personnel," he said. "We have looked all the way down to the very lowest seaman on board to determine whether they have the exact skills sets we need – from an operating technician to a surgeon to a blood-bank specialist. "And we have identified 99 percent of those individuals," he continued. "So [the] plan is to leave tomorrow, and we will be moving as quickly as possible to get to Port-au-Prince Harbor." As much as 70 percent of the crew already has experience aboard Comfort, or its sister ship USNS Mercy in San Diego, Ware said. In addition to onboard training sessions conducted every 12 weeks, many participated in Continuing Promise 2009, Comfort's most recent humanitarian assistance mission through Latin America and the Caribbean. During that mission, USNS Comfort treated almost 100,000 patients, including tens of thousands in Haiti alone. The visit provided important lessons to the Comfort crew it will apply during its disaster response mission, he said, but also fostered relationships that will help in its upcoming mission. "They are waiting for us to come," Ware said, citing numerous phone calls and e-mails he has received from people he's already worked with in Haiti. "And I think those [relationships] will really pay off – not for us, but for the people of Haiti." Navy Lt. Cmdr. Thomas Olivero, department head for Comfort's operating room, is preparing for a mission he expects to be heavy in head injuries, crushing injuries, amputations and other trauma cases. His crew will exercise various trauma scenarios once it's all onboard and under way, to be sure it's ready to hit the ground running when it arrives. Olivero remembers the gratification of Continuing Promise 2009, when "a busy day for us was a good day, because we were helping many people." He expects to be even busier during this mission, too, but acknowledged the circumstances will be a lot tougher to deal with. "It is going to be good to help people, but the reason you are busy is not what you want it to be," he said. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Lesley Prasad, one of just 50 permanently assigned crewmembers aboard Comfort, said it feels great seeing the hospital ship provide such a desperately needed service to relieve suffering in Haiti. It's kept him and his fellow crewmembers buzzing nonstop for the past four days "on full steam" to prepare so they're ready to hit the ground running. "I feel really good about this," he said, pausing as he ordered last-minute medical supplies for the mission. "We are the best qualified crew medically, [and we're] ready to help these people in Haiti," he said. "To be able to have such a vital role in the effort, it's awesome." (Issued on : Jan 15, 2010) | ||||||||
| Biographies: Navy Capt. James Ware Related Sites: USNS Comfort Special Report: Haiti Earthquake Relief | ||||||||
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U.S. Soldiers unload food and supplies
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| U.S. Soldiers unload food and supplies from a Navy MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter from aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) at the airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 15, 2010. The U.S. military is conducting humanitarian and disaster relief operations after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake caused severe damage near Port-au-Prince Jan 12, 2010. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Candice B. Villarreal, U.S. Navy/Released) | |
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Ear plugs in the ears of an infant before boarding
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