Because of low amounts of precipitation during the winter in Afghanistan, the potential for drought has been a major concern for many leaders and citizens of the country, according to media outlets.
With issues like this in mind, Resolute Support – Headquarters (RS-HQ) organized a Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Response (HA/DR) exercise with the assistance of Train, Advise, Assist Command-South (TAAC-South) in mid-March in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
The two-day course, which consisted of scenarios involving floods, drought, earthquakes and a mass refugee crisis, was led by senior Afghan leaders and planners, who recently graduated from the first North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) operational planner’s course.
LTC Ken Smith, strategic plans officer for RS-HQ, said the purpose of the HA/DR exercise was to provide Afghan leaders an opportunity to conduct government interagency functions and to refine and improve national- and regional-level contingency plans for HA/DR events.
LTC Smith, the lead planner of the exercise, said leaders of TAAC-South – which is comprised of members of the 40th Infantry Division of the California Army National Guard and the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division – were specifically selected to participate in the training.
“Many of the [Soldiers] of TAAC-South are members of the California National Guard back in the States,” said LTC Smith, an Omaha, Nebraska, native. “They have experience with disaster response, whether it’s part of their civilian job or as members of the Guard, so this was a great opportunity to have them share what they have learned [during those events] with our [Afghan counterparts].”
Among the Soldiers who served as subject matter experts for the exercise were MAJ Nathan Wall and SGM Aaron Cardoza, both members of the 40th ID. MAJ Wall, a preventive medicine officer in the Army, said his biggest concern during humanitarian assistance and disaster response is planning for displaced individuals and non-battle medical problems such as disease.
SGM Cardoza, the operations sergeant major for TAAC-South, emphasized the importance of planning to the Afghan senior leaders.
“Over my years of service, I have participated in floods, fires and earthquakes as part of the Guard,” said SGM Cardoza, a Marietta, California, native. “You can’t plan for every scenario, but by staging vehicles [and] equipment, having Soldiers or personnel trained [and] food or water packaged, you can speed up the reaction time and ultimately be able to save people’s lives and homes.”
For Col. Mohammad Soroush, ministry of defense plans officer in Afghanistan, the exercise was extremely helpful to him and his fellow leaders.
“It’s important for us to go over these types of scenarios,” Col. Soroush said. “Any course of action that we decided to conduct takes effort and coordination, and we always need to have a contingency plan or else we could fail and lose lives.”
BY SSG Neysa Canfield, CALIFORNIA NATIONAL GUARD
