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ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam - More than 300 military
members from six different countries joined together to
conduct the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief
portion of Exercise Cope North 15 here and throughout the
region of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Feb. 15-18, 2015.
Aeromedical personnel from the U.S. Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force transfer a simulated downed pilot from a U.S. Navy MH-60S Knighthawk during a multinational search and rescue exercise at Cope North 15, Feb. 18, 2015, at Anderson Air Force Base, Guam. Exercise Cope North 15 enhances humanitarian assistance and disaster relief crisis response capabilities between six nations and lays the foundation for regional cooperation expansion during real-world contingencies in the Asia-Pacific Region. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Jason Robertson) |
“The Pacific theater and Pacific Command cover an enormous
span of area, and every day we're encountering new issues
...” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Mark Nexon, CN15 HA/DR
mission commander. “Natural disasters are very common –
there's a lot of volcanic activity, there's earthquakes, and
tsunamis, and typhoons that remain a threat throughout the
region, so practicing our capabilities and improving our
capacities, and not just the United States, but all our
partners in the region ... working together, we can cover
more area together.
The U.S. Air Force, Navy and
Coast Guard partnered with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force,
Royal Australian Air Force, Republic of Korea Air Force,
Royal New Zealand Air Force, and the Philippine Air Force to
accomplish the training exercise. This marked the first time
the RNZAF and PAF participated in Cope North to assist with
the aeromedical evacuation portion of the HA/DR exercise.
Members from the Singapore and Vietnam air forces also
observed this portion for the first time.
The scenarios of the event varied to meet seven
main objectives: Airfield assessment team insertion,
deployment of contingency response Airmen, expeditionary
medical support, multinational aeromedical evacuations,
substandard airfield operations, humanitarian assistance
airdrops, search and rescue, and redeployment of the
contingency response Airmen.
This year's Cope North
also marked a first where Airmen deployed off Guam to the
nearby islands of Tinian and Rota for the HA/DR exercise,
versus the method of deploying troops to the local Northwest
Field on Guam in the past. Rota was used as the hub location
to support and provide relief to the spoke location of
Tinian which was fictitiously impacted by an earthquake and
tsunami for the training scenario.
“The
interoperability during this exercise was amazing,” said
Sharon Rohde, CN15 HA/DR lead planner. “Everyone was very
well integrated, and this was a positive reflection of our
ability to coordinate with other agencies who have been very
accommodating and extremely helpful in supporting us,
especially the local civilian airports in CNMI.”
To
start off the exercise, members of the 36th Contingency
Response Group from Andersen AFB and RAAF contingency
response Airmen deployed to Rota and also opened the
airfield and accomplished substandard airfield operations on
Tinian. There was also EMEDS established at Rota to aid
exercise victims who were hypothetically transported from
Tinian for medical care. When necessary, EMEDS members
arranged some patients for aeromedical evacuation by
multinational AE crews to be transported to a higher echelon
of care.
“We observed how the U.S. and Australian
aeromedical evacuation teams manage patients and set up the
hospital,” said Philippines Air Force Tech. Sgt. Wilfredo
Uiado, aeromedical technician. “We learned a lot and it was
great to be part of Cope North and to establish
relationships with the other countries.”
The four-day
HA/DR scenario on Rota and Tinian mirrored the team's
real-world capabilities of being able to maintain operations
for five days in the event of a disaster until civilian
agencies would be able to support the impacted area. During
that time frame, the air forces demonstrated these
capabilities by treating 70 patients, moving more than 216
passengers, transporting approximately 700,000 pounds of
cargo, and conducting approximately 25 airdrops before
concluding and redeploying back to Guam.
The exercise
culminated with a joint, multinational search and rescue
event off the coast of Guam on Feb. 18, 2015.
This
year marks the 86th iteration of the Cope North multilateral
training exercise which is a long-standing, multinational
event designed to increase interoperability, improve combat
readiness, and develop a synergistic disaster response
capability between the countries involved. The second half
of Cope North will shift the focus to air combat training
which will include air-to-air and air-to-ground combat and a
large force employment exercise.
More photos available below
By U.S. Air Force Melissa White
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2015
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