Military

Captain Welch: Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Operation now named Unified Assistance is in its tenth day. For ten days we have provided disaster relief and support to the governments and the people of the affected region. We are working together with many other nations who have responded to meet many challenges of this immediate disaster relief effort. Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka are directing the requests for relief. The U.S. role is to support these efforts by responding to these nations to our fullest capability. Our mission remains to minimize the loss of life and to mitigate human suffering.

Regarding the international military cooperation, currently 11 countries -- Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Germany, New Zealand, France, India, Korea, Pakistan, Singapore and the United Kingdom are contributing as many as 26 fixed wing aircraft, 41 helicopters, and 26 naval vessels. In addition to the aircraft and naval vessels these countries have allowed for use of airports as hubs, field hospitals -- they've send them and they're making them available, and they've provided relief supplies and medical personnel and supplies. These countries are all teaming up to most effectively deliver the much-needed supplies and services necessary to prevent further loss of life.

Regarding the coordinating headquarters. The Joint Task Force headquartered in Utapao, Thailand led by Lieutenant General Blackman has transitioned to a Combined Support Force, that's a CSF. Lieutenant General Blackman met with Secretary of State Powell as well as the Thai and Indonesian country teams and senior leadership with very positive results within the last two days.

The support groups in each of the countries have also transitioned to Combined Support Groups -- they used to be U.S. Support Groups, they're now the Combined Support Groups, and they're in place in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The Combined Support Force directs and coordinates all these groups. Specifically in Thailand the Combined Support Group is led by Brigadier General Gluck, based in Phuket, Thailand. Some of the activities that he unfolded yesterday, he met with the Royal Thai military. Currently the Royal Thai Navy is in the lead of this effort. He also held initial meetings with the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team and several other government and non-government organizations.

The Combined Support Group in Indonesia is led by Brigadier General Cowdrey. It's based in the vicinity of Palonia Airfield, Medan, with a forward operating base at Banda Aceh. Also coordinating and synchronizing the relief effort with other agencies through the host nation, and specifically that's the Indonesian Disaster Relief Headquarters.

The Combined Support Group in Sri Lanka is led by Brigadier General Panther and he met with other government agencies to include military and civilian leadership and they're working on locations where the assets will be distributed and the responsibility of distribution.

In Colombo, the planned arrival of two C-5s will increase supply delivery capacity there.

The number of U.S. personnel in the region continues to increase. Specific assets are driving the request and this increase, and we are filing them as rapidly as possible. To date there are over 13,000 people in theater; afloat over 12,000; and on the ground over 1400. About 100 relief personnel are forward deployed to Banda Aceh from Utapao. I'll talk more about the numbers of aircraft, assets and people in a second as I close this.

Included in this relief are media personnel, medical support teams, and security personnel. The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Team also arrived in Phuket two days ago.

Regarding specific assets, there are 20 naval vessels -- 13 U.S. Navy ships; six maritime prepositioning ships and one Coast Guard vessel -- are in the disaster relief areas and are providing direct assistance to the affected areas.

Abraham Lincoln and Bonhomme Richard are on site providing helicopter and relief personnel to the effort as well. An additional six ships are en-route with personnel and supplies.

There are about 85 U.S. military aircraft working continual daily operations. About 16 C-130s, nine P-3s, four KC aircraft, about 48 to 50 helicopters, six C-5s, and four C-17s. Once again I will talk about the numbers here in a second.

The Combined Support Force directed over 70 specific support missions yesterday in the theater. The primary emphasis was on delivery of humanitarian relief and supplies. About 50 of those missions were flown by helicopters and of those about 30 transported relief supplies from Banda Aceh to [Samet Gol, Kudhetona, Saos, Lamo and Malabo] all in Aceh, Northern Sumatra.

As of yesterday we started flying helicopter support missions in Sri Lanka. Also as of yesterday, as I mentioned, Bonhomme Richard ESG entered the Strait of Malacca and started flying helicopter support missions.

The kind of relief provided varies in each country and it varies based on what that country asks for. It includes food and water; life support; non-food -- medicine, et cetera; engineering support; forensics; and equipment.

Regarding supplies delivered. In both Sri Lanka and Thailand we have transitioned to a pull vice push situation. This means that in those countries we are responding specifically to requests for supplies and personnel rather than just flowing in those and stockpiling them. We have not transitioned quite to that situation in Indonesia, but I anticipate that coming soon.

Some other specifics. In the last 24 hours 67 tons of relief supplies were delivered into the disaster area. The total relief supplies delivered to date are in excess of 610,000 pounds -- 7.8 tons of food, 2.8 tons of water, 1.3 tons of supplies were delivered to Indonesia specifically in the last 24 hours, two tons of tarps and sanitation kids were delivered to Sri Lanka in the last 24 hours, and 20 tons of relief supplies moved from Bangkok to Phuket.

So as you can see with the supply train, there's lots of moving pieces. It gets to the theater, it's distributed to the hubs and to the locations, the support groups, and then further distributed out to those in need.

Specifically regarding medevac, 41 survivors were flown from various villages and were medevaced to Banda Aceh. And once again, those are dynamic numbers.

So in summary, we have transitioned from U.S. Support Groups in each country to Combined Support Groups. They're working cooperatively both with the host nation and through the host nation with the country team, with the government organizations from all these countries and the non-government organizations. We've also transitioned from a Joint Task Force in Utapao commanded by Lieutenant General Blackman to a Combined Support Force there.

United Nation reps are flowing in to all these impacted areas. They've stood up teams, as far as I know, in Indonesia and Thailand so far. Again, this is a multilateral, multinational coordinated effort by both the participating countries' militaries and their other government and non-government organizations and agencies.

What the U.S. brings to this is we are supporting this by providing coordination and organization, structure and mechanisms, as well as providing all kinds and variations of lift, supplies, equipment and personnel. Once again, by, with and through, and as requested by the host nation.

What we specifically bring is speed and capacity of response. We can come there quickly, we were coordinating and operating within about a day and we can come with a lot.

In all the countries, once again this is multilateral and it's being coordinated both at the hub and in the specific command support groups.

An example of this cooperation happened two nights ago when a 737 broke down on the runway at Banda Aceh. As you can imagine, that would limit further flight ops. And five countries' worth of people gathered five countries' worth of equipment and within hours had that thing moved from the runway so that we could resume flights.

As I mentioned earlier, regarding the number of forces on the ground and some of this data and statistics I've been talking about, this is very dynamic. Even by the time I finish these remarks, those numbers have changed. Helicopters move in and out of the theater, they go above and below the flight deck, they land. Missions may be one sortie to one place and it may be a four or five our sortie executing multiple lifts. So just keep that in mind when you reference our web site and you see this data. Especially if you see some of the numbers not agreeing with each other.

With that, I'd like to open it up for any questions.

Q: Captain, [inaudible] with Reuters.

Can you give us an update on the Hospital Ship Mercy? Has it departed yet? And can you tell us about what the crew's going to entail?

A: Sure. The answer is it has not departed. The Hospital Ship Mercy is still being considered as one of the possible assets, just like a lot of other assets. That final decision has not been made yet. It has completed sea trials and I know that leadership in Washington is looking at it very closely.

Q: Captain, this is Esther Schrader with the Los Angeles Times.

We hear reports of some frustration of chopper crews in Indonesia, apparently in Medan, Indonesia, [inaudible] and the supplies were stacked, an overwhelming amount, at the country's airport. Apparently the choppers had to bring the aid back to their ship.

Can you speak at all to any of those sorts of problems?

A: Sure. I'm not aware of that specific story. However, once again, this is a very dynamic situation. These crews in these helicopters are lifting equipment as they think it's necessary and sometimes by the time they arrive that equipment is either not needed or it's needed somewhere else. So I'd tell you that if that in fact happened, it may have been diverted for those kinds of reasons.

Not only is there a number of flights issue, how many flights can you fly into an airport at a time, but there's also an issue of how much can you get distributed that's on the ground. So it could be that it's at capacity or it could be that another flight arrived with that same equipment from somewhere else.

Q: This is Pam Hess with UPI.

Could you tell us why you wouldn't be sending the Mercy? What's the downside to sending the Mercy? It seems like a no-brainer decision. And could you also detail the numbers of personnel that the other countries are contributing? You gave us their vessels.

A: I can go back to the vessels. I'll answer the second question first. I don't have an exact personnel count from the other countries. As I said, 11 countries are participating in various capacities. About 27 fixed wing come and go from the region, about 41 helicopters, and about 26 naval vessels. If you check on our web site you can see by flags exactly where those folks are.

Regarding the Mercy, I would direct you to the DoD public affairs officer for those kinds of questions. As I said, out here we are standing by to execute what the decisionmakers tell us to do.

Q: Captain, how about the prepositioned ships? When are they going to arrive?

A: Depending on which one you're talking about and what area they're going to, anywhere from six to ten days.

Q: Some of those should already be there then. Some of them left like six days ago.

A: Correct. So some of them are in fact starting to flow into the region. I think the earliest arrival is supposed to be either tomorrow or the next day.

Q: Captain, Tech Sergeant Barfield from AFN, Hawaii.

Can you tell us a little bit how we've ramped up our operations from the hub to the most affected areas that they just went into maybe four or five days ago, getting relief supplies there?

A: Sure. As I kind of mentioned earlier, the initial push was to get people to the field and then to find the places to best act as distributing points. That takes time. Then once those people are in the field and flowed to those points it takes time to set up a coordinating mechanism, and an architecture, if you will, inside that country because the intent once again is to support that host nation's effort. So who's in charge there and who can run it?

Once you do that you have to figure out a way by which to receive not only aircraft but supplies, and then a way by which to distribute it. So all of those things combined add time to execute.

In Thailand it was very quick because we've done lots of work in Thailand -- Cobra Gold kinds of exercises, et cetera, so we fell right in on an existing structure. In Sri Lanka almost equally as easy, but also keep in mind that the Indian government and military forces are providing a good deal of help there so we really fell in on that structure. We haven't had as much of a structure to fall in on in Indonesia, and that's taken the longest time, especially up in Aceh.

Q: Can you talk about whether or not the U.S. would be involved in rebuilding some infrastructure? Like to get those rebuilding bridges which would help trucks get into areas, or expanding the airport so that more flights can get in?

A: Sure. I'll stick to what the military can do regarding that, and I'll just make one comment about the overall game plan.

Keep in mind, the mission set as I mentioned is to minimize loss of life and mitigate human suffering. So an assessment is made as to how to best expedite that and make the distribution of those equipment and personnel most efficient. So if a bridge is needed or some mechanism to get, some way to get those material and people to a place, then the chances are that whoever is there and closest with the capacity will work to build and repair that.

The U.S. military is not necessarily in the reconstruction business yet, unless it supports that mission set that I talked about. The U.S. government of course will support the host nation's requests as time goes on to work that second phase, if you will, of overall reconstruction. Right now, though, the main emphasis is getting the relief to the required areas. So what it takes to do that, the crowd on the ground makes a tactical and operational decision on what assets are nearest and best equipped to get to that problem and solve it. It may be military, it may be another country, it may be NGO, et cetera.

Q: Can you also talk about the coordination, how that's going? It sounds like it's going very well, but are there any problems? Is there a structure where somebody's in charge? How do you work things out?

A: The answer is, there is a structure where somebody's in charge. These are coordinators, these one star flag officers I mentioned. They're not necessarily commanders because they don't have command authority, if you will, over other government agencies. Once again, the lead is the host nation. Whoever they designate in each place is the lead element.

We bring both our military organization capacity and structure and our other government agency capacity and structure to fall in on that requirement. The NGOs then can coordinate through us. The UN shows up, they coordinate through us and with us, so what we provide is that architecture as I talked about, that structure that people can fall in on and we can connect them to the right people at the right places. Not necessarily direct or control what they're trying to do, just providing them with that information.

I think I can get about two more questions here. If there are that many.

Anything else?

Q: Can you talk about anything happening today or tomorrow like assets arriving or things that are changing?

A: I would tell you that, as I mentioned about two days ago, these assets are flowing in and you can almost see a live stream several times a day where our web site's updated on what assets are in the region and where they are. Keep in mind that that Carrier Strike Group and that Expeditionary Strike Group are not being viewed as an entity. They are being viewed as individual, the assets inside them are being viewed as individual assets.

So I would expect that some decisions are going to be made about which assets are going to stay because they're needed, and which ones can move on and assist in other places or carry on with formerly planned missions.

Q: So Captain, if we want to double check some of these numbers you gave us it will be on your web site?

A: That's correct. And probably by the time you check it, those numbers will have changed.

Q: Thank you.

A: That's it. Thank you very much, everyone. Good morning.

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