Haitian volunteers help unload supplies from a U.S. Army landing craft at a Haitian Coast Guard station in Carrefour, Haiti, Jan. 19. Photo by Cpl. Bobbie Curtis

Since the beginning of Operation Unified Response, one of the primary missions of the Navy and Marine Corps civil affairs teams attached to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit and the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group is to unite the people and governments of earthquake menaced Haiti together with non-governmental organizations and international aid workers.

Children from Carrefour, Haiti, gather as local leaders conduct a humanitarian aid distribution in the city, Feb. 18. The Marines and sailors of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit transferred primary responsibility for humanitarian aid distribution to the local and national Haitian government throughout the month of February. Photo by Cpl. Bobbie Curtis

Using a facility called a civil military operations center, Marines from 4th Civil Affairs Group, attached to the 22nd MEU and sailors from Maritime Civil Affairs Team 207, worked diligently to bring all these factors together to help organize a combined local and international effort to stabilize the Caribbean nation.

“The mission of the CMOC was to act as a bridge between the people and the local government,” said Staff Sgt. Jerrick D. Croston, a civil affairs team chief with 4th CAG and the 22nd MEU.

The CMOC is located in the town of Carrefour, just outside the nation’s capital city of Port-au-Prince, on Landing Zone Argonaut, a small encampment operated by the Marines and sailors of Battalion Landing Team, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 22nd MEU.

At the facility, civil affairs personnel met with town leaders and NGO officials to plan distributions and combined operations for the people of the local area.

“As local Haitians and organizations had needs, they brought them up to the CMOC,” Croston, a Philadelphia native, continued. “The major achievement of the CMOC was getting the mayors [of Carrefour] and the local government to work with the community leaders of Carrefour.”

Croston explained that many of the one million strong population of Carrefour have strong loyalty to a few key leaders in the community, who are mostly pastors from local religious organizations.

“After the earthquake people looked to them,” he added. “So we brought the local leaders and the local government together.”

Bringing the local leaders and their followers together with the Haitian government and several NGOs, the Marines and sailors of the CMOC streamlined the aid process for the people of Carrefour, transferring the primary role of providing humanitarian aid, from the U.S. Military to the Haitian local and national governments.

The civil affairs personnel conducted the operation in multiple-steps, beginning with an assessment phase where the Marines and sailors found out what problems were occurring in the area. Once problems were identified, the personnel worked with Haitian leaders and NGOs to solve the issues.

“At this point we have transitioned the role of the CMOC to the Haitian government and are back in the assessment phase,” Croston explained. “We are making sure the needs are being taken care of.”

Chief Petty Officer Charlotte Reijo, a team leader with Maritime Civil Affairs Team 207, meets with children from Carrefour, Haiti, Jan. 18. Sailors with MCAT-207 and Marine civil affairs specialists with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit conduct operations from a Civil Military Operations Center in Carrefour, aimed at uniting the people of Haiti and the Haitian Government with non-governmental organizations to transfer primary humanitarian aid responsibilities in the area from the U.S. to the local government. Photo by Cpl. Bobbie Curtis

Captain Rebecca A. Popleiski, a civil affairs team leader with 4th CAG and the 22nd MEU, said the group of civil affairs specialists have come a long way in the month they have worked in Haiti.

The Marines began their operations in the towns of Petite Goave, Grand Goave and Leogone before moving to Carrefour. Those three areas had less involvement with community leaders and worked more specifically with NGOs, where as the Carrefour area of operations had a lot more grass-roots involvement, she explained.

“When we pull out of here, all the cities are going to be able to stand on their own,” Popleiski, a Washington D.C. native, explained. “Whether that’s local government or national government … they have stepped up and taken charge.”

With the aid of the Navy-Marine Corps civil affairs teams from the 22nd MEU and Bataan Amphibious Ready Group, the government of Haiti has taken primary responsibility for humanitarian aid distributions in the Carrefour area. Marines and sailors from the 22nd MEU have become a supplementary force as the Haitian Coast Guard and international NGOs take over.

DVIDS
Story by Cpl. Bobbie Curtis

The amphibious dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall operates off the coast of Killick, Haiti. Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Kristopher Wilson

Chance often plays a large role in the lives of our military’s men and women. The sailors and service members aboard the USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44) recognize that fact of life all too well today.

LSD 44 was supposed to be off the west coast of Africa today, working with partner navies and providing security and stabilization instruction and assistance to the nations and peoples in that region as the sea base for Africa Partnership Station (APS) West . Instead, they find themselves off the coast of Haiti, uniquely staffed and provisioned for a relief mission they could have never imagined.

British Royal Navy Cmdr. David Salisbury, right, the director of staff for Africa Partnership Station West, embarked aboard the amphibious dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall, helps deliver donated goods from Mexico to more than a thousand people in a school yard in Killick. Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Martine Cuaron

On board the ship are a number of officers from various navies in West Africa as well as officers from European militaries. Officers from nations as diverse as Gabon, Senegal, Ghana and Italy were part of the APS staff but have transitioned to being an integral part of Gunston Hall’s relief efforts. The ship also carried a Maritime Civil Affairs Team (MCAT) which has worked to allow closer cooperation with local leaders and NGO’s in the area.

Maritime Civil Affairs Team 203, along with Sailors from the amphibious dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall and the Mexican navy ship ARM Huesteco deliver donated goods from Mexico to more than a thousand people in a school yard in Killick. Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Martine Cuaron

The ship is working through the Haitian Coast Guard (HCG) base on the outskirts of the devastated city of Carrefour. Killick Base was badly damaged by the earthquake on January 12 but the first U.S. ships on scene found the Haitian Coast Guardsmen at work. USCGC Forward was met by their small craft and their aid parties welcomed ashore.

HCG Killick Base has become an active relief center for the region. Large amounts of supplies have been offloaded for distribution by the HCG and local Haitian police. A medical clinic has been created and staffed, and medical evacuations to ships offshore such as USS Bataan and the hospital ship Comfort are carried out as necessary.

Petty Officer 1st Class Christine Perez, information systems technician, left, from Elgin, Texas, Nicole Lozano, chief Navy counselor, center, from Salt Lake City, and Seaman Nicole Worthy, from Vallejo, Calif., comfort a crying baby after a medical examination at Killick Haitian Coast Guard Base. All three Sailors are stationed aboard the amphibious dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall, which is assisting in Operation Unified Response following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, Jan. 12. Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Martine Cuaron

Gunston Hall arrive January 18. It has been on station since then. Forty man work parties are going ashore every day to provide assistance in and around the medical clinic. The Mexican Navy is supplying medical personnel to the clinic.