Military

CAPT. WELCH: Good morning everybody. As was discussed, my name is Captain Rodger Welch. I work in the operations directorate for U.S. Pacific Command.

I want to start off by just saying that, if you've been following the news since Sunday morning, this of course is a disaster of monumental impact. It is not only having regional impact, but I anticipate global implications.

From PACOM's perspective, the countries impacted, these are people that are our friends. We do business with them on a day-to-day basis, the component command, the Pacific Command. We are out there all the time. I'm recently back from Thailand and Indonesia just a couple weeks ago. And so we're out there all the time.

What we have done so far is we have deployed a joint task force under the command of Lieutenant General Robert Blackman, who's stationed with III MEF in Okinawa, and they will be going to Utapao, Thailand, which is on the west coast, on the Andaman Sea. The Thai government has been very gracious and has allowed us to deploy a joint task force there, and that's going to be the staging base, if you will.

We also have assessment teams, disaster relief assessment teams in three separate countries, in Thailand, in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. We are also looking into assessments in the Maldives and other countries in areas impacted in our region.

Pacific forces -- and I don't want to focus on the forces, once again, because this is a humanitarian assistance effort. This is not a force deployment. These forces are being deployed to assist the host nations in assessing what's needed and in then building and bringing capacity to the humanitarian relief area.

We have nine P-3s, 10 C-130s and about a dozen ships. We also have eight maritime positioning ships, which are cargo ships, which carry food and stores and have fresh water supplies and fresh-water- making capability.

We have also deployed a carrier strike group, the U.S. Abraham Lincoln -- U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, with four or five ships in company as well as a handful of other ships. The USS Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group, it will be heading out into the Indian Ocean and then to work the Sri Lanka area, and Abraham Lincoln will be staying in the Southeast Asia area, at least for now. So I think that's a good start.

Once again, I need to emphasize that our efforts are to support the host nation. We are doing that through the American embassies. And so we kind of call that a 'by, with and through' policy.

So I can open it up to any other questions now and we can go from there.

Q What will they exactly be doing?

CAPT. WELCH: It depends on the country, but the first thing is to determine what kind of assistance the country needs, and the country's the one that's making its best guess at that right now and they're working at that. So we'll help them do that. We have experts that do that for a living. And then we'll determine, once the assessment is need -- is made on what's needed, then we'll determine what kinds of things we can provide them. Things like fresh water, food, medical supplies and medical assistance, forensic capabilities, builders -- you know, folks to do repair work -- those kinds of things. This is all humanitarian assistance. And we are working with U.S. State Department and USAID. OFDA has also been brought in, and they're in fact in the lead with State Department as the lead agency of this whole effort.

Q Captain Welch, you mentioned that these are our friends --

CAPT. WELCH: They are.

Q -- and we, definitely here in Hawaii, have a connection to a lot of the countries in Southeast Asia. You yourself just got back from a visit to Thailand. When you look at these pictures, you know, of the devastation [inaudible] what is your reaction to that?

CAPT. WELCH: My reaction to that? Once again, it's a disaster, you know, of unfathomable proportion. I think we're only beginning to see the casualties involved because we haven't made an assessment. Some of these areas are remote. Some of these areas are not necessarily connected, you know, with their governments communication- wise. And so we have to go out and surveil, and that's what some of the P-3s will be doing as well as the helicopters that come out. There's a search-and-rescue effort that will be ongoing. So I think it's just going to be something that we're going to be watching for a while. The numbers are going to increase, and -- before we get our arms around the entire problem at hand here. So my personal reaction -- it's very hurtful. And you know, I see that kind of devastation as something that's natural, and we couldn't do anything about it. However, perhaps it'll help us learn how to prepare in the future to do -- to take steps.

Q Captain?

CAPT. WELCH: Yes, ma'am?

Q How many people did you send? When did you send them? How long do you anticipate they'll be there? How much money is it going to cost, do you think?

CAPT. WELCH: Okay. That's a lot of questions. I'll see if I can remember them all.

We have sent, as I talked about -- we have about 20,000 people that are available in this command alone. We haven't sent that many, obviously. We also have sent U.S. government and DOD -- and once again, this is an all-agency effort. This is not just Department of Defense.

We started sending them as soon as we found out. We had people already in countries, as we talked about, through our defense attaches and our American embassies. They immediately sent folks to the areas impacted. They made an initial assessment. And as soon as we could, we started sending forward these disaster relief assessment teams. And that happened about two days ago.

So these teams have anywhere from 15 to 40 people on them. They're tailored. And the joint task force will be larger, of course, once it gets there.

If you talk about all the numbers of people that are on all these ships, that's quite a few. You know, we're talking about, in a carrier battle group alone, anywhere from eight to -- you know, 8,000 people, plus or minus, depending on how many ships are in fact in accompaniment.

So how much money will it cost? We don't have any idea yet. We can't estimate that.

Q What about a time frame?

CAPT. WELCH: Well, the time frame that we're interested in is to do as much help as soon as we can, as long as we're needed. And how long is that? Until the own country can manage the problem themselves. You know, the intent is not to go there and set up shop. The intent is to help these host nations, assess what's needed, start the ball rolling to make the appropriate efforts in the countries and then slowly get out of their way, so they can take care of business.

Q Yes, sir. Just a question about the pre-positioning ships -- the commercial ships now assigned to Military Sealift Command. Can you tell us a little bit more about their capacity, really what they bring to this, to this effort?

CAPT. WELCH: Sure. I can you tell you that here exactly, if you'll let me put my glasses on. Okay?

Okay. There's eight of them, as I talked about. They're large cargo ships with stocks of food, fresh water and other relief supplies. They're from Guam and Diego Garcia. They're commercial ships leased from the Military Sealift Command, as you talked about. They're basically floating warehouses.

Now, one thing I need to impress upon everybody, and the folks here know this, but sometimes outside of Hawaii it's not so apparent. The tyranny of distance in this region is amazing. It takes days for ships to get even from here to Southeast Asia. You know, a couple weeks. It's 1,500 miles from Utapao in Thailand to Sri Lanka. That's days. So that's eight to 10 days of steaming time. And these ships, as you know, are not the fastest ships in the world. They're fast enough, but they aren't high-speed ships. So it will take some time to get all this going.

They carry about 450,000 gallons of fresh water. They can generate 90,000 gallons a day. And as I said, we expect them to be on station in about a week to 10 days.

In addition to the food and the medical supplies, they carry heavy transport trucks, humvees, bulldozers, amphibious vehicles, generators and other equipment that's useful for relief operations. And we can tailor them. And of course we have airlift as well that's going to move tons of relief assets, to include equipment and food, and we'll do that at every opportunity.

And we're right now looking for ways to make this as efficient as possible, working in conjunction with the other government agencies. And that, as you know, is an effort in itself, making sure that everybody who wants to help -- as you can imagine, the phones are ringing off the hook -- try to wind and find efficiencies in those efforts. And that's going on at the national level.

Q With so many needs, once the units are [inaudible] and supplies get there, what do you think will be the biggest challenge? Will it be - [inaudible] -- specialists, or will it be getting medical aid?

CAPT. WELCH: I think the biggest challenge is the one I mentioned at the beginning, an assessment of what's needed. I mean, I don't think we've even begun to grasp the scope of this yet, and the numbers are changing daily as to how many people are dying and/or are sick or casualties.

I think then it's things like fresh water because there is contaminated water everywhere, and the more that people get thirsty, the more they're going to drink contaminated water. Then they're going to get sick and the problem is going to compound itself. So I think getting that under control is probably one of the -- you know, fresh water and food, and then medical supplies. And then we would start working at worrying about the other things.

Q In the initial days, critics had complained that U.S. wasn't doing enough to help this effort and here you talk about all that we're doing. What would your reaction be to a statement like that?

CAPT. WELCH: I think I'd use the same reaction the president did; whoever would say that is not quite informed with all the facts. You know, we have provided -- I think we've, at the government level, have at least initially allocated $35 million. Once again, this is a coalition and a regional effort. We've already been talking to -- we, the Pacific Command and the U.S. government have talked to regional allies -- Japan, Australia, India. As you can imagine, India has an interest in Sri Lanka and they provided immediate relief and support, as did Pakistan. Thailand, once again, has really jumped up and offered Utapao as a staging place, which is exactly centrally located and perfectly placed. So that's helping a lot. Those kinds of things -- as you can see, those kinds of things are going to make the difference. Not just Department of Defense or even U.S. government interagency. It is regional host nations and all agencies.

Q When is that Joint Task Force actually going to be able to stand up in Utapao?

CAPT. WELCH: Five-three-six. They should be there -- they should be there tomorrow. Actually, they're already there. The forward control element is already there with a one-star Marine, the deputy of III MEF. Ken Gleuck is his name, brigadier general. The three-star will be there tomorrow, I think.

(To staff.) Does that sound right?

Something like that.

Q So tomorrow --

CAPT. WELCH: It's already operational. I mean, they're already there. They're already telling people, you know, aligning efforts, et cetera. But the command will actually -- the commander will be there, I understand, tomorrow sometime.

Q Sir, I understand about the forensics team that's going in there. Any specifics on exactly what they're going to be doing in some of those relief efforts?

CAPT. WELCH: I can only speculate. I would probably defer that to a medical crowd. I anticipate they're going to be doing everything from, you know, identifying bodies to helping with medical, you know, kinds of efforts. So I think that, you know, that's going to be part of the medical effort.

And each of our agencies in each of our departments has their own separate brief. I'd point you at the public affairs guys so that they could get you pointed exactly at those kinds of specific details, like how many tons of things are moving and what the doctors will do and what, you know, the POW crowd will do. There's a handful of people, and everybody's pitching in to help this effort.

Q Captain, I have a question by phone.

Q Do you know what --

CAPT. WELCH: One second, on the phone. Go ahead now.

Q Yeah, hi. This is Mark Mazzetti from the L.A. Times calling in from Washington. Just two quick things.

First, you said that we're only beginning to see the casualties that are involved in this. I mean, do you have any rough estimates about how high this could actually go, given what you said about some places we haven't even been able to assess yet?

And secondly -- well, I'll let you answer the first one, and then I'll have a follow-up.

CAPT. WELCH: Okay. Okay. The answer to the first one is easy: no. I can't tell you what -- how many people there will be.

We've heard estimates of already anywhere from 80,000 people, depending on the source, to 200,000 people. And once again, these all have to be verified and checked, et cetera. So I think this is just going to be something that we get updated on every day.

Q Okay. And secondly, you said that the MPS ships would probably take a week to 10 days. Just on the carrier group and the Marine Expeditionary group, can you give rough estimates about when those might arrive in their destinations?

CAPT. WELCH: Yeah. The carrier group is already there. They're in the Straits of Molucca right now.

Q They are. Okay.

CAPT. WELCH: Right. And so they're in position to provide support already, and they're bringing anywhere from a dozen to 20 helicopters, depending on if you include the escort ships and the ships in company. The Bonhomme Richard, I think, is supposed to arrive in about five to seven days. That's the expeditionary strike group.

Q And they're going to be off the coast of Sri Lanka?

CAPT. WELCH: That's correct, in that general vicinity.

Q Great. Thanks very much.

CAPT. WELCH: Sure.

Q I've got a question. Apparently there was a group of Thai soldiers that were on maneuvers, and they really got hurt or devastated. Do you know what the extent of that is?

CAPT. WELCH: Now I can't speak to the other host nations' losses yet or what kinds of people or forces were lost.

I can tell you that in all the countries affected, people have joined together, across law enforcement and ministry of foreign affairs and defense department, to make it a consolidated effort. And so immediately the military folks are usually best postured and the law enforcers are best postured to respond. So -- but I can't speak to what kinds of casualties happened specifically in Thailand or with what forces.

Q Can you say at this point how would these be -- how would they use the forces -- any of the American forces at all to help with the relief or to help with the search or --

CAPT. WELCH: I think, as I talked about, the first thing is to determine, you know, and to assess what's needed, and then take an inventory of what's available. And that inventory includes own nation assets and resources, nearby nation assets and resources, regional, and then of course what the U.S. brings and what anybody else brings. So -- then once we do that, we do kind of what's called a gap analysis, and you determine what needs to go where. And so I think it's going to be a matter of here's what kinds of things we need in this place and here's what assets we have, and so we'll point those at that effort.

Q The organizations like the -- (off mike) -- who are conducting drives in various communities, how do you then get the medicine or the clothing or whatever it is they're collecting over to the places that actually need it?

GEN. WELCH: I think I'm going to do something you're not supposed to do in a press conference. I'm going to tell you what I know about that instead of just turning it off. As I mentioned, a lot of people are willing to contribute something, and they have everything from clothes, to medicine out of their cabinets, to canned foods, et cetera. The U.S. government is consolidating an effort to tell you what's needed, so they're asking people to not drive up with truckloads of stuff but instead to look and see what's needed and then we'll make a determined effort. Does that sound about right? (Inaudible response.) Okay.

Q (Off mike) -- gap?

GEN. WELCH: I think -- you know, I used the word gap analysis, but the assessment is going to take -- is, you know, ongoing. I don't think it will ever stop. I think months down the line we'll be finding places that were impacted. But I think that what we will be able to do pretty quickly, within the next few days, is start actually pointing efforts at places.

Q (Off mike.)

CAPT. WELCH: That's exactly right, yeah. There are people already there. There is humanitarian assistance going on. There are medical teams already out there, not just ours but the countries,' as we've talked about. And so these countries have responded extremely well. As I mentioned, though, some of these places are very remote and the one or two roads that were into and out of them are either flooded now and/or inaccessible.

Q Can you elaborate on that? I mean, are you talking about like at Utapao, the staging area, that's where the things are being disbursed from, or…? What are you talking about?

CAPT. WELCH: From Utapao, from Guam, from -- we aren't using bases, okay? I just need to make that clear. Utapao is a staging area. Most of the U.S. military efforts is coming from ships or it's being lifted out of Utapao to these locations to help. And the help is not jumping out and taking over, it's jumping out and falling in on whoever is leading the effort. Usually the own country is leading the effort, or other countries. For example, in Indonesia, Australia probably has the largest presence there now, and we are starting to augment that presence.

Q When you said that the government was going to assess and see what's needed and then tell people how they can help, can you elaborate on that a little further, like when they're going to tell, or is there a number that you want us to put out?

CAPT. WELCH: I think that the PAOs can help you with that afterwards. I've only just read about it, and I think it's just beginning to be organized, frankly.

STAFF: I know the White House had a link to it a USAID site which told people how they could contribute financial aid in order to be part of the relief effort [inaudible] and as those sites appear we'll add links to our websites.

CAPT. WELCH: Right.

Q Sir, is there confirmation now that this is actually -- the relief effort is going to replace the Cobra Gold exercise drill?

CAPT. WELCH: No confirmation of that. Obviously there's a limited number of resources not only in PACOM, but in the U.S. and regionally. And also there will be -- you know, the governments are going to be recovering and managing this issue for a while. So exercises in fact may be impacted, but we'll let people know that as it unfolds. We are doing an assessment in the headquarters right now to determine that.

STAFF: Let's go with one more question.

CAPT. WELCH: Sure. (Pause.) I answered all the questions. Good. (Laughter.) Okay.

STAFF: Thanks.

Q I know. One real quick.

CAPT. WELCH: Sure.

Q When you have a lot folks that -- (inaudible) -- Okinawa or -- Yokota -- any plan down the road whether there -- (inaudible) -- relief, whether you'll task others --

CAPT. WELCH: Yeah, I would say that, you know, once the assessment is complete, then the inventory happens, which is, what's available; and where is it; and how fast can it get there; and what can it do; and is that an efficient and expedient thing to do? So there may be certain specialties that only are located in one place. Of course, we're going to have to pick them up and ship them out there. If there is some folks that can do [a number] of things, then we'll put the closest assets to the problem.

So the answer is that all of the U.S. government's assets are available to deploy to help this effort as it's determined to be needed.

Okay? Thank you guys very much.