PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (March 3, 2010) -- Seven weeks after the earthquake that rocked the nation of Haiti, the U.S. military is preparing to readjust its forces as the government there and non-governmental organizations exercise more and more control over relief and reconstruction efforts.
"If you would have been here Jan. 15, like I was, you would have seen a shocked population, roads that were clogged, an airfield that was chaotic, and a port that was not operational," said Col. Gregory Kane, director of operations for Joint Task Force - Haiti. "There was a massive amount of aid trying to get into the country, and we had very little synchronization."
"Now, we have a great deal of synchronization and coordination amongst the Haitian government and the many agencies assisting," said Kane. "The Department of Defense is still providing some support but much less than what we have been."
At the high point of Operation Unified Response, American forces numbered 20,000 and they were responding to about 2,000 incidents a day; today there are about half the number of troops here, and they are responding to under 100 incidents per day.
These numbers show two things: that the demand is down and that the government of Haiti and the relief agencies are taking on the bulk of the response, said Kane.
U.S. elements remain in Haiti, supporting both the needs of the United Nations and the host government. The JTF-H is continuing to work large projects in conjunction with its international partners and the U.S. Agency for International Development. These projects include ruble removal from urban areas and the resettlement of camps that have been identified as high risk, prior to the rainy season. U.S. forces are also continuing to provide indirect support to the World Food Program by helping to bring supplies in to the Port-au-Prince area.
"We will continue to resize our force based on the mission parameters that we are given," said Kane. "We have received approval to start redeployment, and that will continue for the next two weeks."
"We will still have a considerable force in Haiti, about 4,500 personnel, but they will be more logistically oriented," he said. "We will also have a small-sized maneuver element to deal with any contingencies - be they natural disaster or otherwise."
The reduction in forces, like what is happening here around the two-month mark, is normal in a humanitarian operation such as this, with the military assets providing immediate response, bringing with them many different capabilities, and then transferring more and more responsibilities to the local government and NGOs.
"At this point, the work that our partners are doing continues to grow and the Haitian government is becoming more and more self-sufficient," said Kane. "However, we will continue to support them as long as we are needed."
(Spc. A. M. LaVey writes for the XVIII Airborne Corps.)
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