Photo By Jonathan Bell | Elizabeth Brown, Lead Humanitarian Assistance Advisor to European Command, introduces...... read more read more
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U.S. Army Story by V Corps Public Affairs
ANSBACH, Germany – More than 40 U.S. Army V Corps and allied nations’ Soldiers completed a two-day joint humanitarian operations course led by instructors from the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, May 5.
When a natural disaster strikes, USAID is the U.S. government led agency that coordinates the humanitarian assistance/disaster response with other federal organizations to assist, depending on the situation. The U.S. military plays a supporting role rather than a lead one. Often there is damage to critical infrastructure and that is when military assistance is requested due to its logistical expertise.
The course supports all V Corps lines of effort, to include mission ready, as well as adapt and innovate.
The Victory Corps plays a vital role in the "whole of government' approach to promote U.S. and European interests in both competition and crisis. As the corps assumes more responsibility in the European theater of operations it is imperative the staff knows how the U.S. responds to humanitarian crises and understands the responsibilities and capabilities of all agencies involved, specifically the role of the Department of Defense.
The course provided V Corps Soldiers and their partner forces with an overview of how the U.S. government operates after a disaster and, while there is an actual textbook answer, students learned that because each disaster is different, each response is different.
“The training that we received during JHOC reached a key cross-section of our Corps staff, adjacent commands, subordinate echelons and allied partners who will all take what we’ve learned back to their respective headquarters to share what we learned and encourage others to attend in future iterations who might otherwise not realize the value of the course,” said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Han, civil affairs director, V Corps. “The benefit of having our allies participate is that learning together helps us to be better prepared to execute combined and integrated operations when we are called to support the host nation or nations impacted by disaster. As we continue to maintain readiness, JHOC has added an additional dimension to our unified and prepared posture and we will have a head start towards a common framework under which to operate together.”
The instruction enhances the V Corps staffs ability to adequately respond to crises and helped Soldiers understand the military’s role in what can be rapid-onset and/or complex events, in which lives are at risk. In these critical situations, the U.S. military must be able to assume its portion of the mission quickly, making interoperability within the full U.S. government structure vital.
Participants were pleased with the course and the opportunity it provided to learn about USAID and how humanitarian assistance is delivered to populations in need.
“JHOC was a great opportunity to learn about U.S. and international systems and the challenges of providing humanitarian assistance,” said Romanian Army Maj. Marian Stoica, liaison officer to V Corps. “It offered the ground for meeting a lot of service members who shared their experience related to the topic of the course. Common understanding of the complex operational environment is a big step towards interoperability among allied partners. This kind of common training event will prove valuable in our future ‘shoulder to shoulder’ actions.”
V Corps is America's forward deployed corps in Europe and works alongside NATO allies and regional security partners to provide combat ready forces, execute joint and multinational training exercises, and retains command and control for all rotational and assigned units in the European theater such as the 1st Infantry Division, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, 12th Combat Aviation Brigade, 41st Field Artillery Brigade, and 4th Security Forces Assistance Brigade.
| Date Taken: | 05.18.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 05.18.2022 12:25 |
| Story ID: | 420989 |
| Location: | ANSBACH, BAYERN, DE |
| Web Views: | 59 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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