Army, joint forces train for disaster relief, humanitarian assistance

By Lt. Col. George "Kris" Hughes and James L. Kennedy Jr.July 7, 2017

Army, joint forces train for disaster relief, humanitarian assistance
Capt. Shawn Palmer, a biochemist with the 1st Area Medical Laboratory, based out of Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., and a native of Loma, Colo., breaks down a biological safety level three glove box at the 1st AML's Ebola testing lab in Zwedru, Liberia... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

WASHINGTON -- Listening to the news on any night of the week, it is very possible that one might hear a story about a natural disaster in a foreign country that requires humanitarian assistance. This initial story may quickly be followed up by a recommendation from the U.S. ambassador to the country that the United States be a part of the international response.

What comes next? Who will lead the U.S. government's response? What support will the U.S. military provide? What immediate actions might a logistics planner on a division, corps, or Army Service Component Command staff take to prepare your command to provide support?

To help sustainment professionals prepare for such a scenario, the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance under the U.S. Agency for International Development created the Joint Humanitarian Operations Course. This two-day course teaches Department of Defense personnel how the government responds to international disasters.

OFDA'S DISASTER ROLE

OFDA is the lead for coordinating the government's response to disasters overseas. It's mission is to save lives, alleviate human suffering, and reduce the social and economic impact of disasters.

In this role, OFDA responds to an average of 70 foreign disasters every year. OFDA ensures aid reaches people affected by rapid and slow-onset disasters and crises. OFDA fulfills its mandate worldwide in partnership with USAID functional and regional bureaus and other government agencies.

USAID has requested DOD's support in various operations because of the DOD's unique capabilities, such as the transport isolation system and mobile diagnostic laboratories.

A recent example of DOD supporting USAID was during the West Africa Ebola outbreak in 2015. Planners at the U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Army Africa were able to effectively integrate into the response planning effort and assist USAID because they had attended the JHOC.

COURSE SPECIFICS

The JHOC is conducted by OFDA subject matter experts who have vast field experience in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations and in working with the military. The course begins with an overview of USAID and OFDA that explains the criteria that must be met before the United States will consider responding to an international disaster.

The course discusses the mission tasking matrix, which comes from an OFDA civilian-military coordinator and is used to request assistance from the DOD. It also covers OFDA-DOD collaboration, provides an outline of the humanitarian food program, and discusses the roles of military liaison teams and disaster assessment and response teams.

The course has two practical exercises. The first allows students to apply knowledge gained in the course to a training scenario based on Typhoon Haiyan, the powerful tropical storm that devastated portions of Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines, in 2013. The second exercise has five separate briefings covering small- to large-scale operations.

COURSE BENEFITS

The JHOC is highly recommended for organizations that will potentially have a direct role in supporting USAID in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations. Staff planners at the corps, division, and expeditionary and theater sustainment command levels will benefit from knowing how USAID operates, how it requests support for assistance, USAID common terminology, and the systems it uses.

Currently, there is no cost to units for an OFDA mobile training team to conduct the two-week training on site. Therefore, training 35 to 45 officers and noncommissioned officers to understand and work with USAID will pay large dividends when the need arises. Additionally, each combatant command headquarters has OFDA representatives, so units near these headquarters or USAID regional offices can enroll their personnel in a nearby course as long as seats are available.

A final advantage of attending JHOC is that the joint staff J-7 has accredited the JHOC to give successful attendees a half-point professional military continuing education credit.

The benefits of this course are tremendous for units and Soldiers who will work with OFDA and USAID during emergency operations. Personnel who are trained in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations are needed now and will continue to be needed in the future.

The leaders and planners of disaster assistance have the responsibility to provide the best training for a wide variety of missions. By having Soldiers attend the JHOC, the Army ensures that it has the most well-trained and agile planners and staff possible.

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To enroll in the Joint Humanitarian Operations Course, contact USAID OFDA at ofdainquiries@ofda.gov.

This article was published in the July-August 2017 issue of Army Sustainment magazine.

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