Military

Captain Rodger Welch

Opening Remarks

Welch: Hauoli Makahiki Hou, which in Hawaii, as best I can do, means Happy New Year and I say that Happy New Year here for those of us transitioning into 2005, but most importantly for those who are in the region already working in 2005. In 2005 the U.S. government is supporting host nations' disaster relief efforts in several countries. We also continue to express our sympathies and our condolences to our friends in the impacted areas, they are our friends and we will help them. We are committed to this. I'll tell you that as of today, we are on the ground in the impacted areas, specifically in Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. We are moving supplies now and people. I will talk more about these kinds of supplies in a minute but are doing that now, specifically in Thailand, we've been doing for a couple days and in Indonesia as well and in Sri Lanka. We have the Carrier Strike Group Abraham Lincoln, which is in the Strait of Malacca, and they are preparing to start helicopter operations into Aceh and Indonesia.

We will continue to support these countries by, with and through the host nation, leading agencies and the U.S. government interagency where those efforts are needed. As I started off with, we are providing relief now and we will continue to do so while we continue to assess the situation

Some specifics, as the President mentioned in his statement earlier, we are participating in supporting a massive international response. That response includes estimates up to $500 million in donations. I think that the President talked today about $350 million being our new number. President Bush is going to send Secretary Powell and Governor Bush into the area. They will leave on Sunday. As I mentioned in our specific assets support, we have C-130 aircraft flying supplies into the hardest hit areas in Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka. These supplies specifically are focusing first on water, shelter, food and medicine. The assessments teams are in place on the ground coordinating with their host nation counterparts and they will continue to do so.

We have seven patrol aircraft flying damage survey type missions also assisting in any search and rescue efforts that are going on. We have ten C-130s that are ferrying the supplies into the disaster areas and as I mentioned, the Abe Lincoln Battle Group will start flying helicopters today, specifically into Indonesia. In Indonesia, we have coordinated with several other countries to include Tonesia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and Austacetra to make this effort work and to remove redundancies and find efficiencies and everybody has helped. The core group as was announced yesterday, U.S., India, Japan and Australia has added a partner today, that's Canada, and we expect that there will be more coordination countries in time. These co-ordinations are also working on finding efficiencies and aligning efforts and synchronizing efforts.

In the Pacific Command arena the Deputy Commander met yesterday with nine council generals in the affected countries. These countries included Australia, India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Republic of the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Japan, and Indonesia. They each expressed their condolences and their sincere gratitude for all the efforts that we are continuing with. Once again, it's important to express to everyone that we are working to support the host nations and we are doing so through their existing architectures in their countries.

I have one final piece in my opening statement and then I'll open it up to questions. I'll give you a little bit of a force lay down and some assets and what they are doing. In JTF-536 we have a forward control element in Utapao. I have a chart up here that we can look to later. There are three disaster relief assessment teams, as I mentioned, on the ground at work. They are any size from about 12 to 40 people, depending on which country.

We have ten C-130's, nine P-3's, we have a carrier strike group, we have an expeditionary strike group, and we have a joint POW-MIA assessment team on the ground. En-route we have more of those teams. We have two civil affairs teams en-route. We have several airport teams that will access the availability and usability of several of the airstrips and airports in the region. We have two to four C-17's. We have an additional six helicopters coming that are light to medium lift. We have an additional six C-130's that are medium size aircraft that can take off and land in short fields and provide supplies.

We have six CH-53's and six CH-46's, which are medium and heavy lift aircraft that can help deliver supplies, cargo and people. All the helicopters can move people and they've already started doing so. So far, we've seen helicopters go down range with supplies, into the impacted areas and they will MEDIVAC people back to areas where there are hospital facilities and doctors. So we're using them both ways. We have several other ships en-route to include an LSD, USS Fort McHenry, etc.

There are lots of different types of ships coming and I want to tell you that the forces are growing, the coalition is growing and those are the kinds of things we're working right now. As I mentioned yesterday, specifically as far as forces go, we've got about 350 people on the ground and about 9,000 people afloat. Those are the people there now, and doesn't count all the people en-route. I think I can now open it up to any questions that you might have.

Q: I have a question about the USS Abraham Lincoln since they've trained here in Hawaii and the people here are a little more familiar with them. Can you tell me more about what they'll be doing?

Welch: Those plans are still forming although they're positioning themselves off the coast of Thailand and they will mostly be using their helicopters to move people and supplies. They have a lot of capability on that ship, and not just that ship, but the entire carrier strike group. They can put their ships in lots of places and a lot of them have helicopter capability. They can transport and build water if you will, so where they're going to be used is still being assessed, but they're parking themselves off Thailand. We anticipate that they could be used down in Indonesia. The same with the ESG. So, the forces are now mustering and we're determining how best to use them. And that's part of this coalition, coordination and alignment effort. They also have aircraft of course and they can do any number of things - surveillance, search and rescue, transport of people in some capacities, command and control, etc. They also have photography and infra-red night vision capability, so lots of capabilities comes with a carrier strike group, not just with the people onboard.

Q: Did you say there were 8,000 people attached?

Welch: I think I said 8,000, but there are 6,200 people in that carrier strike group specifically and another 3,000 or so in the ESG. So, that's the 9,000 people I talked about.

Q: Captain, where is the coordination taking place for this core group and where is the interagency coordination within the U.S. Government taking place? Is that happening on the ground, or back in Hawaii, or where?

Welch: There are several different branches to that answer. First of all, the core group is located in D.C. There's a disaster core group a joint task force - state led, with the interagency involved. We actually have a video teleconference with them every day at 6 oclock Hawaii time and we did that today as well. That coordination is happening there and it's manned by every agency you can imagine. It is USAID and OFTA heavy and humanitarian kind of assistance heavy. We do have an OFTA rep here at PACOM as well and they will put some OFTA reps in the region, to include Indonesia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka to coordinate those efforts. So, the interagency piece is being managed in D.C. The military piece is here at PACOM. Yes, we have the large picture here as the higher headquarters, but the JTF Commander, General Blackman in Utapao, Thailand, will be arriving this weekend and will coordinate those efforts, logistic, military and eventually coalition and even interagency efforts. What I mean by that is he'll have the headquarters and people will fall in under that headquarters, those LNO's from the inter-agencies and those other countries so as to align those efforts.

Q: The civil affairs teams. Where are they coming in from?

Welch: They're coming in from all over the place. Wherever we can muster them from. Wherever they're closest. Civil affairs come from not only reserve units, but also from active duty Army and Marines. I suspect we can also do some COMREL and civil affairs work from the Battle Group Assets and the ESG assets. So, the first thing to do once again is muster the resources, as I said we're already sending people down range to get work done. But, muster the resources, take an inventory, and then apply the closest and best and most efficient asset to the most immediate need.

Q: What is your relationship with the non-governmental agencies and are you already coordinating with those folks in Utapao?

Welch: Well, out of Utapao, I'm not sure. I think that information will come as that LNO arrives there. Keep in mind that the American Embassies have great relationships with the NGO's and those embassies are in fact deeply engaged and involved in coordinating with the task force commander and the countries. Additionally, as I mentioned, OFTRA reps are arriving and USAID is deeply plugged in. The person who's leading our interagency effort is actually the director of our COE here. That's Mr. Keith Bradford and he's going to be in charge of mustering those NGO's and pointing them in the right direction and making sure that coordination happens. I think what you'll see today, or by tomorrow at least, is that some of the standard, unclassified, USAID reports on assistance will start having what the military is doing added to those reports so we're getting a holistic picture of that…and I think we just started that today.

Q: Do you have an estimate of the cost of the U.S. military contribution so far?

Welch: No. We don't have that estimate yet. Right now we're in the mode of getting people down range and helping people. We're building the money trail and the money will come and that's the way we're looking at it. I would turn you over to the Public Affairs Office and the Comptroller as the effort becomes more on-going, but I can't make an estimate of that right now.

Q: You said that we would be flying helicopters into Indonesia. Can you elaborate on that and tell us exactly where they're coming from and what they're going to be doing?

Welch: There will be five from the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, probably from the Lincoln itself and any ships in the group that can launch them. The intent is to fly them into Aceh and Madan and the places where we can land them. It will be an effort to get the assets there and to start moving the supplies that are already mustered at those places into the impacted areas. And that's why helicopters are crucial because they can get there and they can land just about anywhere and they can get those supplies moved. That's important for a couple of reasons because right now, in a lot of places, there are supplies stacked up at the airfields and they're only waiting for a way to move them into the impacted areas. Whether it be helicopters or trucks, and those trucks are also being lifted into these areas so we can form an efficient supply line, so that when supplies arrive at the airfields, we can get them out to the impacted areas and that makes room for more supplies to arrive.

Q: Would you say that Aceh and Madan are the highest priority areas right now?

Welch: We think that Indonesia is singularly the most impacted area. I will not say it's the highest priority, but I will say it is a very high priority and will probably require the most assets. For the military, we will play in that support as we are needed and it may not be that the military is not needed in Indonesia as much as somewhere else. If the determination is made by the Commander here and by the JTF Commander that the best and most efficient manner to get people and supplies moved is by the military then that's the tool we'll use. If not, if it's other governments agencies or countries, then that's the tool we'll use.

Q: You mentioned the joint POW-MIA group on the ground. Can you describe exactly what they'll be doing?

Welch: That's the JPAC command here and they've been here for quite a while. They bring relationships and access to various places. They bring kind of an interagency look at things. They also bring forensic capabilities that can help identify remains, etc. So, they are just an asset that we'll plug into the toolbox as they needed, but they do bring some unique capabilities.

Q: When you say they're on the ground, do you mean Utapao?

Welch: I'll have to get back to you on where they're exactly located right now. I would suspect that they're either in Utapao or Thailand. They may be in Bangkok, but we'll get back to you on that.

Q: Captain, you said there were three assessment teams out. Can you elaborate on them?

Welch: We're calling them DRAT's (Disaster Relief Assessment Teams) and they are in Thailand, based in Utapao. They are in Sri Lanka, based in Colombo. They are in Aceh. Indonesia, based at Madan right now.

Q: What kind of feedback are you getting from them right now?

Welch: We just started getting SITREPS from them yesterday or the day before and the kinds of things they are telling us is who they working with, what's there, where people can come in to and go out of, what the state of conditions are and what's needed. They're getting all kinds of things. They're also coordinating the liaison between central HUB in Utapao and those remote locations. We'll go to the map once again in a second. It's important to note that here shortly there will be a one-star flag officer in each of those locations, and there will be humanitarian operation centers, if you will, or civil humanitarian operation centers (CMOCS), they'll be run by one-stars for leadership and coordination. At least from the military perspective, it may be that one star supporting other government agencies for example.

Q: What is the timeline on flight operations from the Lincoln?

Welch: By the time that day light comes around there, they will have about a full days worth of flying is what we were told, and that is the estimate right now. I will tell you that in Indonesia specifically, there are some challenges, it's visual flight rules, so not a lot of radar, if any radar coverage. There are a lot of aircraft from a lot of countries. It's daylight flying only, not much night capabilities yet. Those are the kinds of challenges we will be working through as we go.

Let me just point to the map if I can and I think we can swing the cameras that way. Utapao is up here as you can see on your top right of the screen, that's in the Gulf of Thailand It's about 1,500 miles from there to Colombo, just to describe distances. So if you're a ship and you are traveling 18 to 20 knots, it's going to take you a week plus to get that far. It's not quite as far to the impacted area in Indonesia, its about 700 miles, it's about 380 miles to Phuket, and of course it's about 1,500 miles to some of the other impacted areas. Even airplanes are going to take several hours to move and ships of course several days. So as we talked about, the CSG is currently located in the Strait of Malacca proceeding up towards off Thailand and the ESG is in route and will probably be passing through the Strait of Malacca here within the next couple of days.

Q: Will that ESG be based off Sri Lanka?

Welch: That's the current plan and once again, this is the last question, once again the Commander will make a real-time assessment on where that is best placed. Each of these assets has different capabilities and we need to take a real close look of what is needed where at time. So don't be surprised if the ESG doesn't in fact go or parts of it don't end up going to Sri Lanka and some other assets do go there. Thank you very much.