WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Jan. 5, 2004) -- Several Army units are among the many military assets the United States is using to bring relief to the victims of an earthquake-induced tsunami in the Far East.

Deploying as part of the Combined Support Force for the disaster relief effort are a variety of Army experts from areas as widely spread as Thailand and Arkansas.

U.S. Army Forces Command is sending four mortuary affairs teams from Fort Lee, Va. The teams will provide help in identification, processing and evacuation of the dead from the disaster.

The 8th Army, Korea, is deploying medical and logistic units including CH-47 Chinook helicopters to provide evacuation and supply distribution and medical assistance to those in the affected area.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is sending three Forward Engineering Support Teams from Japan, Alaska and Arkansas to help in the area's recovery. Each team consists of a military team leader, a civil engineer, a structural engineer and a geotechnical engineer.

In addition to the team members, each team will also include two noncommissioned officers with the Corps of Engineers' 249th Primary Power Battalion, according to Corps spokesman Lt. Col. Stan Heath.

The team deploying from Alaska will provide assistance to Indonesia. The Japan contingent is headed to Sri Lanka, and the team from Arkansas is headed to Thailand.

The teams will help assess the damage to the countries' infrastructure and aid with reconstruction planning.

In addition to the FEST support, an engineer from the Engineering Research and Development Center, in Vicksburg, Miss., has also headed to the area. The engineer is a Thai native who will be attached to the Joint Task Force Humanitarian Assistance Cell. Originally planning to travel to Thailand to participate as a liaison in the annual Cobra Gold exercise, she has now gone to the region separate from the FEST teams to reinforce Army efforts in the area.

U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, N.C., is sending three civil affairs teams and a psychological operations assessment team. The CA teams consist of a planning team and two civil affairs teams to coordinate relief efforts. The PSYOP assessment team will use its broadcast and production capabilities to focus on information distribution concert with local officials and relief organizations.

The Army is part of a joint and combined expeditionary force deploying from around the globe to support this disaster relief effort. U.S. Army Pacific is the lead coordinating command for Army support to the CSF.