Photo By Staff Sgt. Shelby Pruitt-Johnson | U.S. Air Force Capt. Dorothy Sherwood, Joint Task Force-Bravo Public Affairs Director,...... read more read more
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More than 85 participants attended Sentinel Watch, a 2-day natural disaster preparedness exercise, at the Permanent Contingency Commission of Honduras Headquarters in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, July 10-11, 2024.
COPECO hosted Sentinel Watch along with Joint Task Force-Bravo and U.S. Agency for International Development's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance with participants from all over Honduras including the Honduran Armed Forces, 911 National Emergency Line, Firefighters, National Police, Green Cross, Red Cross, Civil Aeronautics Agency, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Energy.
Sentinel Watch is a tabletop exercise aimed at strengthening partnerships between national and international humanitarian and emergency services that contribute to natural disaster response in Honduras.
The opening ceremony for Sentinel Watch began with remarks from Vice Admiral (ret) José Jorge Fortín Aguilar, Secretary of State for National Risk and Contingency Management Departments and former commander of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Honduran Armed Forces.
“This is a clear example of what it means to work as a team,” said Fortín. “Only together through shared commitment and teamwork are we able to face the risks we have in our country.”
Honduras is prone to natural disasters, such as tropical storms, hurricanes, floods, droughts, landslides, earthquakes and tsunamis.
One of these natural disasters can cause a crisis, making this exercise's collaborative coordination essential to ensure the most effective and rapid response method is used.
Central America is a part of the Ring of Fire, where earthquakes are more susceptible. Near San Pedro Sula, Honduras, active faults remain unpredictable increasing the risk of unexpected disasters.
Sentinel Watch focused on an earthquake scenario that caused a tsunami, which was based on information from a previous regional disaster. This allowed participants to work through realistic, simulated injects to propose the best-integrated response with their resources.
The first day was on information sharing to provide a common understanding of each organization’s capabilities and background for the next day’s events.
If requested by the host nation during a natural disaster, JTF-Bravo can provide its unique capabilities, which is a short notice deployment by the U.S. Southern Command's Situational Assessment Team. This team is comprised of a variety of JTF-Bravo personnel from J-Staff, 612th Air Base Squadron, Army Forces Battalion, and 1-228th Aviation Regiment that can be tailored to provide U.S. foreign disaster assistance led by USAID’s BHA.
On the second day, participants from Honduras and the U.S. worked through on how they would response together and provided inputs for the best course of action to quickly save lives and provide aid to the people of Honduras during an earthquake and tsunami emergency.
Concluding the event, each participant received a completion certificate for their time, insight and efforts during the exercise from JTF-Bravo’s J9, Civil Military Affairs Director, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Achim Biller.
“I hope that through this exercise we have contributed our grain of sand to a more prepared and resilient region with freedom, peace and friendship,” said Biller in his closing remarks.
The facility Sentinel Watch was held at was donated by the U.S. in 2015, through USSOUTHCOM. USSOUTHCOM remains true to its enduring promise to the CENTAM region and continues to provide support and services with JTF-Bravo.
This partnership and collaborative training emphasizes Honduras and the U.S.’s collective interest in saving lives and helping the community.
JTF-Bravo prepares for the next two iterations of Sentinel Watch in the upcoming months with Belize and Guatemala.
| Date Taken: | 07.12.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 07.15.2024 10:20 |
| Story ID: | 476185 |
| Location: | TEGUCIGALPA, HN |
| Web Views: | 97 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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