Spc. John W. Peterson, of Fargo, N.D., spends time with a local boy in Haiti before posing for a photo with the Haiti flag the boy was carrying. Peterson was part of a group of 21 Soldiers with the North Dakota Army National Guard's 191st Military Police Company who volunteered for a three-and-a-half week humanitarian mission to Haiti. They provided force protection as part of U.S. Southern Command's New Horizons program while assisting in the aftermath of the Jan. 12 earthquake there.

Soldiers working in Haiti returned home yesterday after spending more than three weeks there on a humanitarian mission. The Soldiers, who serve with the 191st Military Police Company, left May 19 to take part in the U.S. Southern Command’s New Horizons mission.

“The North Dakota National Guard does an outstanding job of serving our state and nation, and these Soldiers have proven that the Guard’s dedication and preparedness extends far beyond the borders of North Dakota,” said Gov. John Hoeven. “The important work they have completed in Haiti will have a beneficial impact on the people of that country as they continue to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake.”

The North Dakota Army National Guardsmen provided force protection at four locations in Haiti, primarily to facilitate the construction of a base camp near Gonaives, about 95 miles north of Port au Prince. That construction is wrapping up this week, said Sgt. 1st Class Troy Skelton, of Bismarck, the noncommissioned officer in charge of 20 other North Dakota Soldiers in Haiti. The group also provided some convoy security for medical personnel assisting in the aftermath of the Jan. 12 earthquake.

“These Soldiers embody the characteristics that make the North Dakota National Guard great,” said Maj. Gen. David Sprynczynatyk, North Dakota adjutant general. “Despite the primitive conditions and long work days, they all volunteered to go on this mission. They realize that what they did there will have lasting impacts on the people of Haiti, as well as on their own abilities since they were able to refine their skills while operating as part of our global environment.”

During the 26-day mission, Soldiers subsisted entirely on meals ready to eat and bottled water. The bottled water also was their only means of bathing while in Haiti, where the temperature regularly pushed 100 degrees.

Spc. Lindsay A. Suko, of Mandan, N.D., and Spc. Amanda G. Weninger, of Grand Forks, N.D., pose for a photo at the sea port in Haiti. The sea port was one of four locations where Soldiers with the 191st Military Police Company provided security during the past few weeks as they took part in a U.S. Southern Command New Horizons humanitarian mission there.

“I see the mission as a success,” Skelton said. “The Soldiers completed the mission with professionalism and no complaining. The Soldiers who went down to Haiti were up for the challenges we faced, and they all did an incredible job.”

Skelton’s group worked under the guidance of the Louisiana National Guard and side-by-side with Soldiers from Indiana, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New York, South Dakota, Texas and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Together, they focused on construction projects and humanitarian and medical assistance as part of New Horizons, which gives participating military personnel the opportunity to help communities and individuals with humanitarian needs while enhancing their ability to deploy overseas in support of military operations.

DVIDS

The Louisiana National Guard is scheduled to lead a New Horizons humanitarian assistance exercise in Haiti beginning June 1, U.S. Southern Command officials announced, April 25.

“We are proud to have our National Guard step forward to be a part of this important recovery effort,” said Gov. Bobby Jindal. “Louisiana received so much support from across the country and around the world after hurricanes Katrina and Rita; we stand ready to lend that same assistance to other parts of the world in their times of need.

“These brave men and women know firsthand the type of hard work and perseverance it takes to recover from a disaster, and I know that they will serve the people of Haiti well.”

The exercise in Haiti will provide critically needed medical and engineering services to the country’s capital of Port-au-Prince and surrounding communities, such as Gonaives. The country was ravaged by an earthquake, Jan. 12.

“In three months, we’ve planned a significant exercise in Haiti where there wasn’t one previously,” said Army Lt. Col. Scott Jonda, the exercises branch chief for the Army Guard’s operations division.

“Our engineer units will provide some … new construction of schools and clinics, and there will be medical units that will go out and provide various medical tasks in the community.”

SOUTHCOM officials said that free medical care will be provided at various sites, and that U.S. military medical personnel will be stationed at each site for 10 days to provide general medical, dental and optometry services for about 700 individuals daily.

Engineering projects will include not only new construction at three schools, but also construction of a sports recreation area and water well improvements, said SOUTHCOM officials.

Army Lt. Gen. Ken Keen, SOUTHCOM’s military deputy commander, said that the military humanitarian assistance mission would consist of about 500 Soldiers, led by the Louisiana National Guard.

“The Louisiana National Guard is excited about leading the New Horizons mission to Haiti,” said Army Maj. Gen. Bennett C. Landreneau, the state’s adjutant general. “While our Soldiers and Airmen are very proud to join the relief effort, this mission [will] also be an excellent training opportunity for them.”

Jonda said the Louisiana National Guard will provide the duration staff, while eight other states and one territory will contribute Soldiers to this mission, including Missouri, Nevada, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, California, Indiana, Massachusetts and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Specifically, North Dakota, Indiana and Nevada will provide military police support. Nevada and Montana will provide aviation support; and South Dakota will provide engineering support.

New Horizons missions began in the mid-1980s as an annual series of joint and combined humanitarian assistance exercises that SOUTHCOM conducts with Latin American and Caribbean nations.

New Horizons exercises typically last several months providing medical and infrastructure projects. These missions give deployed U.S. military forces invaluable training opportunities to work with partner nations.

The assistance from New Horizons is in addition to the over $1.03 billion in emergency humanitarian assistance already provided to the Haitian people by the U.S. government since the devastating earthquake.

DVIDs
Story by Spc. Darron Salzer

Two Colombian Armada tender boat operators, crew members from the Cartagena de Indias, pilot their craft towards a small port in Killick to the awaiting U.S. vessel, landing craft utility 2026, the Hobkirk, April 22, near the conclusion of a 6-day mission with the U.S. Army and other non-government organizations. Cooperation between the U.S. Army, Colombian Armada and Army, along with Red Cross groups from both Haiti and Colombia, resulted in several thousand tons of humanitarian supplies reaching the Haitian people. Photo by Capt. Jose Emperador

It’s almost as if the multi-national team of Haitians, Colombians and Americans, who began working less than one week ago to offload humanitarian cargo inbound from Colombia, have been working together for years.

The complex effort of transferring cargo from the anchored Colombian Armada Navy ship, Cartagena Indias, to two alternating U.S. Army landing craft utility vessels, the Matamoras and the Hobkirk, near a small port at Killick, Haiti seemed like a routine effort to the novice mariner. Representatives from all organizations credit teamwork, cooperation and motivation as the catalyst for the successful operation which ended April 22. And no matter which language was being spoken, be it Creole, French, Spanish, English or a mangled combination of all four, everyone involved seemed to agree that the cooperation was “excelente.”

Colombian Armada ship Commander Jose Guillermo Rodriguez says a chance meeting at Port-au-Prince’s main port with U.S. Navy and Army officers began the discussion of a possible joint cooperative mission between the two allies. Rodriguez, skipper of the Cartagena de Indias, a ship used by Colombia primarily for counter drug patrols off the South American country’s coast, said the partnership began forming during the initial encounter. “As soon as I met the officers from the [U.S.] Navy and Army, we began discussing how we could help each other,” Rodriguez said. “After further discussion, we determined they could help us offload cargo from the Cartagena and get it ashore to waiting representatives from the Colombian Red Cross.” Rodriguez added that the partners between the various organizations were motivated and committed to the effort.

“The Colombian Red Cross in conjunction with the Haitian Red Cross and your Soldiers [U.S. Army] came with the LCU of the Army …and every day they came to help unload,” Rodriguez said.

The Hobkirk’s vessel master, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Willis Allen, says the small, damaged port facility at Killick isn’t conducive to a ship the size of the Cartagena. Allen says his vessel, with a flat bottom and shallow draft, is capable of pulling up right to the beach if needed. This quality, unique to LCU-type boats, allowed him to complete those final legs to shore that the Cartagena previously had to do with its utility skiffs.

“We moor alongside the Colombian ship… we tie up, they take a crane and put a gang way down to our vessel and we just start a chain and start the food down to the vessel,” Allen said.

Allen joined the consensus of opinions in saying there was excellent cooperation between all the agencies involved.

“It shows a lot of hospitality between two countries to make things happen,” Allen said. He also said the Haitian workers, the Colombian Red Cross and the crew of the Cartagena, along with his Soldiers, worked extremely well and efficient together. Prior to the use of the two LCU’s, the Colombians off-loaded a load similar in size but that effort took 18 days.

“It is my understanding that when they unloaded the first shipment they had to unload everything to small boats all by themselves by hand.” said Sgt. 1st Class John Gaviria, who coincidentally is Colombian as well as the Hobkirk’s 1st mate. “The experience that I’ve had with the Colombian Armada, the Colombian Army, and the volunteers of the Colombian Red Cross has been excellent.”

Representatives from the Colombian Army, who helped with transportation on the cargo was offloaded, also shared similar sentiments. Colombian Army Maj. Diego Pastrana, second commander, equivalent to an executive officer, of the Disaster Awareness and Prevention Battalion, said their job has required a lot of effort taking into account that they could have used some much-needed resources. “Here, the American Army has been the fundamental logistical part to all the support necessary,” Pastrana said. “At this moment, we’ve been supported greatly and thanks to that, we are able to continue our support for the Haitian people.”

Jose Estrada Charis, director of area relief for the Colombian Red Cross says all the agencies involved formed a strong team. “Responding to emergencies and natural disasters often create a fraternal bond between various nations in the world involved,” Charis said. “The Colombian Army and Armada [Navy] with the American Army have formed a team with the Colombian Red Cross.”

“The humanitarian supplies that the Colombian Red Cross is providing to the Haitian Red Cross as well as the interaction with the American Army and that great friendship and great team that we’ve now created has created an excellent rapport between us all,” Rodriguez, said. “As the commander of this ship, it is one of my hopes that all our crew remember the images we see on land and learn to better appreciate what we have back in Colombia because, in reality, we all live in paradise.”

DVIDS
Story by Capt. Jose Emperador

Haitian citizens remain in the street afraid or unable to return to their homes. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Candice Villarreal

And it grinds on.

AlertNet / Reuters

Around a quarter of a million Haitians living in precarious tent camps could face a “catastrophe” unless they are moved quickly to safer areas ahead of the approaching rainy and hurricane seasons, the United Nations has warned.

More than two months after the Jan. 12 earthquake that wrecked Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding cities, rain and storms threaten to turn some of the city’s squalid tent camps into toxic rivers of mud and human excrement, and protecting the 250,000 residents who are judged to be most vulnerable is a race against time.

As of last week, only around 200 families had been moved to temporary shelters outside of the capital approved by the government.

“We just can’t let people continue to live in these conditions,” France Hurtubise, public information officer for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told AlertNet by phone from Port-au-Prince.

“Some sites sit on flood plains and on hills, which is very dangerous and could lead to landslides. That would be a disaster. These people will have to be moved or it will be a catastrophe if they remain in these sites.”

The government wants some quarter of a million people in around seven of the capital’s 461 camps considered at high risk of flooding and landslides to move by mid-April.

It says relocating people to new temporary sites is the last resort, and is encouraging quake survivors to return to their homes or seek shelter with host families in and around the capital.

The plans mean finding at least 600 hectares of land for alternative settlements, which is hard to come by in an already crowded capital city, says OCHA.

Only around a third of the land needed for resettlement has been identified by the government so far, according to a recent OCHA report.

“We are urging the government to identify more land. Work needs to move faster to move people out of harm’s way before the rainy season starts,” OCHA spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs told AlertNet from Geneva, echoing growing frustration among aid agencies.

Progress has been slow in moving people to safer sites because of difficulties in finding rubble-free land to build on, agreeing land deals and obtaining government approval and building permits, the United Nations says.

Tension between landowners and displaced people settling on private land is also a growing concern, according to OCHA, and in some cases people have been forcefully evicted.

“A strategy to address the legal rights of land owners while also protecting the affected population needs to be developed,” the U.N. agency says in a report.