Bangladesh, U.S. Military Members Partner to Provide Care, Construction

U.S. Sailors and Marines worked with Bangladesh Armed Forces counterparts to provide basic medical and dental care to approximately 1,000 patients, and construct buildings at two schools Aug. 1-11.

The projects took place in several northern districts of Bangladesh, and as reported by AHN, U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh James F. Moriarity said the medical and engineering projects continue a tradition of close cooperation between the U.S. and Bangladeshi militaries, as well as a wider U.S. assistance effort that involves a variety of agencies, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The engineering projects resulted in a new building at two separate schools. Basic medical and dental care was provided at two locations, as well. The engineers, from 9th Engineer Support Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force, and Sailors from 3rd Medical and Dental Battalions are Okinawa-Japan based.

The Bangladesh Interoperability Program, as this outreach was called, is one of a number of ongoing and routine engagements throughout the U.S. Pacific Command area of responsibility designed to improve the quality of life of people in need, while also building understanding and important professional relationships between military and civilian counterparts.

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Asia-Pacific Nations Endeavor to Improve Communications

More than a dozen countries from throughout Asia-Pacific will be represented when Pacific Endeavor, a workshop designed to allow opportunities for the testing of compatibility and interoperability of military communications and information systems, begins Aug. 10 on Hawaii's Big Island.

For two weeks, the representatives will be working together in coordination with the Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) to assess communications equipment, discuss issues and technologies, test communications capabilities and conduct a tabletop exercise to test communications procedures.

Pacific Endeavor is sponsored by the Multinational Communications Interoperability Program (MCIP), which is designed to support multinational humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations by developing communications interoperability between partner nations.

An October 2008 article in Signal Magazine highlighting the importance of information sharing includes an explanation of MCIP and how it serves as a venue for developing the communications chapter of the Multinational Forces Standing Operations Procedures (MNF SOP).

This is the third Pacific Endeavor workshop, with the first taking place in 2005.

The workshop will continue through Aug. 21.

In addition to the U.S., participating countries include: Australia; Bangladesh; Indonesia; Japan; Maldives; Malaysia; Mongolia; Nepal; New Zealand; the Philippines; Singapore; South Korea; Sri Lanka; and Thailand.

Exchanges such as Pacific Endeavor, which contribute to building both capabilities and relationships that could prove critical during future humanitarian assistance efforts, are a key component of the U.S. Pacific Command Strategy.

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Australia Joint Operations Chief Lauds Collaboration in Pacific Partnership

Australian Defence Force (ADF) Chief of Joint Operations, Lt. Gen. Mark Evans, helped kick off the Solomon Islands phase of Pacific Partnership Aug. 6 during a ceremony on board the destroyer USS Mustin, which is visiting there during the humanitarian mission.

The General said Pacific Partnership is an excellent example of the synergy that comes from working collaboratively with the U.S. military, according to an Australian Department of Defence release. Indeed, a goal of Pacific Partnership from the U.S. perspective is strengthening alliances and civil-military relationships to help ensure the U.S. military is able to rapidly respond in support of emergency relief efforts in the future.

There are numerous opportunities to do just that during Pacific Partnership, which includes military and government personnel from Australia, Canada, Chile, France, South Korea and the United States, and civilian volunteers from International Relief Teams, Project Hope and University of California San Diego Pre-Dental Society, who are working alongside their local counterparts. The Loloma Foundation and Interplast will accept surgical referrals from embarked medical civic action programs.

The ADF is contributing twelve Australian Army Engineers, a Royal Australian Air Force Dental hygienist and two Royal Australian Navy Landing Craft to the Pacific Partnership mission this year.

U.S. Pacific Fleet’s Pacific Partnership mission, operating this year from USNS Richard E. Byrd, works by, with and through partner nations, non-governmental organizations and other U.S. government and international agencies to provide humanitarian assistance in the U.S. Pacific Command area of responsibility.

Pacific Partnership has already visited Samoa and Tonga, where more than 8,000 patients have received basic medical care, and more than 2,000, dental care. Veterinarians have treated more than 300 animals. Numerous engineering projects were completed in those two locations, including a work effort of more than 400-man days in Tonga alone.

The Solomon Islands mission will run for 14 days and will be followed by missions in Kiribati and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

Connect with Pacific Partnership via the mission’s website, which includes social media links.

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New School Latest Improvement in Ongoing JSOTF-P, AFP Partnership

A new school building in Basilan, Philippines, built by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) with support from Joint Special Operations Task Force Philippines (JSOTF-P) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), was turned over to local leaders in the village of Sumisip last week.

The school was reportedly one of two burned to the ground by terrorists in March, as noted in a JSOTF-P news story.

This project is the latest example of an ongoing effort between the AFP and JSOTF-P, working often with government agencies such as USAID and the Philippine Department of Agriculture to improve infrastructure and opportunity in the Southern Philippines as a means of countering violent extremism.

Since January 2008, the AFP-U.S. team has completed 100+ infrastructure projects, including new schools, roads, piers, water wells, medical centers and local government buildings.

JSOTF-P is comprised of 500 to 600 personnel from all four military services temporarily deployed to the Philippines at the request of the Philippine Government in a strictly non-combat role to advise and assist the AFP, share information, and to conduct joint civil military operations.

Interact and keep up with the work of JSOTF-P on the Task Force’s new blog/website.

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Disaster Response Exercise Aims to Battle Wildfires

Sixteen representatives from U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) joined representatives from the Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI) and the government of Indonesia (GOI) to focus on wild fires during a disaster response exchange and exercise last week in the Riau Province of the Asia-Pacific nation.

An article in Antara News highlighted the relevance of the exercise in the province, where firefighters are currently battling both forest and plantation fires.

During a two-day exchange, the group focused on procedures for responding to wild fires, specifically incident management and multinational collaboration efforts. Additionally, they exchanged information on command, control and management of response to large wild land fire incidents. They also discussed the secondary and tertiary impacts fires have in the region, as well as ways other organizations and the private sector can be involved in preventing and managing incidents.

The last day of the event featured a table-top exercise that required the group to work together to respond to a large-scale fire disaster.

This exercise, which is led by the TNI and GOI, is in its third year. Each year, additional countries from throughout the region have attended, whether as participants or observers. This highlights the ongoing strengthening of partnerships throughout the Asia-Pacific region, which helps foster more rapid response to disasters and an overall increase in security in the U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM) area of responsibility.

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HELP Course Prepares International Participants to Respond to Humanitarian Disasters

(Submitted by Dr. Ruth Bessinger, HELP Course Coordinator for the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance)

For the thirteenth year in a row, the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (COE) and the International Committee of the Red Cross are collaborating on a course in Honolulu, Hawaii. This course, Health Emergencies in Large Populations (HELP), equips participants with the information and tools to plan and manage a response to humanitarian disasters.

The course, held July 13-30, attracted twenty-four participants from ten different countries including Malaysia, Pakistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Nepal, Tonga, Thailand, and the U.S., half of which are in the military. Most are doctors and nurses and many hold senior-level positions in their countries’ ministry of health or armed forces, or work for non-governmental organizations. Among the participants are the Chief of the Health Emergency Preparedness Division in the Philippines, and a delegate from the International Federation of the Red Cross/Red Crescent in China.

The topics covered in the course are diverse and include water and sanitation, food and nutrition, communicable disease, mental health, humanitarian law, civilian-military coordination, and working with the media. As part of one exercise, HELP course participants built an emergency shelter using materials that are similar to those that refugees may receive during a humanitarian emergency.

Participants have shared their experiences responding to the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia and Thailand and last year’s earthquake in China, working with refugees in Liberia and displaced persons in northern Thailand, and while conducting civil-military operations in Iraq.

(COE is a direct reporting unit to the U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) and its principal organization for promoting disaster preparedness in the Asia-Pacific region. COE partners with a wide variety of national and international governmental, non-governmental and international organizations to provide relevant education, training, interagency coordination and research. In addition, the improvement of humanitarian assistance and disaster response capabilities is a common challenge that continues to provide a framework for numerous military exercises and professional exchanges throughout the PACOM area of responsibility.)

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PACOM Commander Briefs at Foreign Press Center

The state of military relations between the U.S. and China was the primary topic of discussion July 28 when Adm. Timothy J. Keating spoke with a group of more than 30 international reporters at the Foreign Press Center in Washington D.C.

Adm. Keating, PACOM’s commander, emphasized the importance of the renewal of a dialogue between U.S. and Chinese military officials, which will happen within the next several months during an upcoming Military Maritime Consultative Agreement (MMCA) session. The MMCA is a forum designed for talks aimed at promoting safety in naval and air operations.

An American Forces Press Service story highlights Adm. Keating’s comments, including his hope that the military relationship with China will extend to include humanitarian and disaster relief exercise, personnel exchanges, information-sharing on counterterrorism techniques and procedures, and observation of bilateral and multilateral exercises.

Adm. Keating also fielded questions on several other topics, including the state of the U.S. alliance with Japan, which he said “…remains powerful, vibrant and at the centerpiece of all our strategies in the Asia-Pacific region.”

The Admiral opened his briefing with a review of the PACOM Strategy and its tenets of partnership, readiness and presence, and once again held up Pacific Partnership as an example of the application of the strategy.

View video coverage of the 25-minute exchange here on the blog, on the PACOM website, or on the Pentagon Channel.

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