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Joint Multinational Readiness Center, U.S. Army Garrison, Hohenfels Training Area, Germany - Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division and other multinational forces conducted a scenario-based non-combatant evacuation operation of U.S. and Atropian citizens in Aghjabadi City on Friday, June 17, 2016.
In the scenario, U.S. citizens and pre-selected Atropians, gathered to enter the U.S. Consulate, taking only what they could carry based on a list of items they were allowed to transport. Aghjabadi City was under threat of attack from the opposing Arianian forces, and citizens on the list with the U.S. Consulate had the opportunity to evacuate the city during a joint effort by NATO forces.
U.S. Army Spc. Tad Pierce, of 504th Parachute Regiment, said that during the evacuation, Soldiers had to see through "smoke and mirrors" to weed out potential troublemakers from those citizens who were on the U.S. Consulate list and genuinely needed help. He said the process was time consuming but necessary.
All steps of the evacuation required Soldiers to work as swiftly as possible. It involved multinational forces including the British, French and Polish working with the U.S. to successfully remove the citizens from impending danger.
"Speed is always great to take the enemy off its heels, but with the non-combatant evacuation operation, speed is definitely an important piece just to relieve the stress," said U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Randolph De La Pena, 127th Engineer Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division. "All the individuals coming through this process have been pulled from their homes, pulled from their families, and some of them have seen war happen in front of their homes. It seems almost like they're in shock initially. So the ability to process them, get them comfort and aid as fast as we can and onto a plane allows them to reset from that stress before they get back to the States."
"This is the bumper sticker of readiness," said U.S. Army Col. Colin Tuley, 1st Brigade commander, 82nd Airborne Division. "Operations here have their own complexity, their own challenges, but again at the end of the day it brings that reassurance to our NATO allies and shows a united front, because at the end of the day we will always do it alongside our NATO allies."
For those citizens who did not evacuate, Civil Affairs is trained to work with the local populace and help those in distress.
"We put the right people, the right leadership, in the right place," said U.S. Army Capt. Steven Rose, Civil Affairs team leader, 82nd Airborne Division. "We're right alongside the government of Atropia and are here to help them, not to disrupt their way of life. We are here to run the Arianian forces out of this country and bring the Atropians back to a normal, stable way of life."
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will be the lead on humanitarian assistance, along with the military forces who support its efforts, USAID will bring Atropian citizens essential resources like food and water, Rose said.
Exercise Swift Response, the premier military crisis-response training event, involves a multinational task force whose primary purpose is to evaluate and enhance the participants' readiness to rapidly deploy anywhere in the world within 24 hours. The Global Response Force participates in a realistic scenario, designed by the JMRC staff, during which the participants prepare for a real-world conflict by responding to a conflict between scenario nations Atropia and Ariana.
| Date Taken: | 06.22.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 06.24.2016 11:04 |
| Story ID: | 202354 |
| Location: | DE |
| Web Views: | 317 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, 82nd Airborne Division forces evacuate U.S. citizens in Swift Response scenario, by SGT Adrian Shelton, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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