CAMP HOVEY, South Korea -- A girl, no more than four, stood behind a wooden post as she silently watched aid workers remove fallen palm trees and metal-roof sheets from the road, clearing a path for trucks making their way into the Philippine village.
Typhoon Haiyan had transformed this once vibrant village into a disaster area reminiscent of a war zone.
A truck came into the village, giving the basic survival supplies to the people in desperate need. The young girl and her mother were among the many that lined up to receive food and fresh water.
This scenario is not uncommon in the world we live in. The U.S. has donated more than $1 billion for humanitarian assistance in 2013, according to Global Humanitarian Assistance. The U.S. has been involved in many disaster relief missions in places such as the Philippines after Hurricane Haiyan and Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. How the resources are allocated to those people in need is a mystery to many people.
"Usually we take a very large role and do direct coordination with organizations such as the U.N. and U.S. Agency for International Development, Department of State or whatever U.S. agencies happen to be in that country at that time," said Maj. Edward Lescher, the Civil Military Operations Center chief with Company C, 84th Civil Affairs Battalion from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. "In many scenarios our main focus would be to get the joint task force commander as many resources as he needs from the world."
There are many people who want to give supplies and there are people who are ready to receive it, said Lescher. They just need those connector nodes, which are the civil affairs teams.
"You are taking international entities that have the resources and using Department of Defense assets to get those resources into country," said Lescher. "It takes a lot coordination using the host nation military, government, or other trusted non-government Organizations to hand those resources out to the people."
Civil affairs is responsible for the coordination piece during a humanitarian assistance mission, Lescher said.
The way the U.N. breaks the coordination down is cookie, truck and bridge.
"The cookie is what you want to get to the end user," said Lescher. "In most cases it is food, it is a humanitarian assistance package of some variety. For you to get it to the end user you need a truck and bridge. The bridge being the local infrastructure and the truck being the actual logistics resources required to get there."
"At no point in time do you want to be the one handing off the cookie and at no point in time do you want to tie yourselves down to the bridge," said Lescher. "You just want to be the truck, because it reduces the footprint you have in the area."
Civil affairs' specialty is understanding the civilian layer and being able to use it as a force multiplier, said Lescher.
In the battlefield. It is not just enemy and friendly forces, but also the civilian population.
"They can either love us or hates us," said Lecher. "It makes a world of difference on the battlefield if the population loves us."
Lescher said projects need to be conducted with the local and American interests in mind. Projects such as roadways allow a faster avenue of approach for Soldiers or a basketball court that can be used as a helicopter-landing zone serve such dual purposes.
"You cannot ignore the fact that many battlefields now are asymmetrical," said Capt. David Palmer, the civil affairs officer with civil-military relations for 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. "It involves all aspects of government, not just the military."
Understanding the local culture is vital to the civil affairs mission, said Staff Sgt. Kristopher Shirley, a civil affairs noncommissioned officer with Company C.
Civil affairs personnel have had language and cultural training. Each time they deploy to an area they have another cultural course and learn phrases to understand the target language of a country.
"If you can understand the culture, you automatically have a step up on just another foreigner who is there," said Shirley. "Especially here on the Korean peninsula, the Koreans are accepting of people who just know a few phrases such as hi, thank you and good bye."
During this year's Key Resolve exercise, Lescher and his team supported 2nd Infantry Division and 1st ABCT's civil affairs missions. According to Lescher, the exercise gave his team experience that is not usually afforded to them in training scenarios at JBLM.
"What is great about training in Korea is everything is a variable for the teams," said Lescher. "Unlike JBLM, where the environment is a control and whatever is different is a variable. Just sitting down and talking to a Korean is phenomenal because nothing familiar to the team; they have to be very alert to everything that is going on around them."
Key Resolve allowed CA teams to calculate the delivery times and amount of crucial resources, according to Lescher. Going through realistic steps and applying the real world answers to the problems was invaluable.
"You have a certain number of people and you have to evacuate them out of the area; how long is it going to take to get them out of there," said Lescher. "Performing the steps allows us to provide a commander with an estimate of necessary resources with timelines."
"With this exercise all those questions and answers are going through the South Korean government," said Lescher. "The more experience you can get working with positively motivated allies, the better training the Soldiers will receive. This experience has been great for us."
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