Planning for the unexpected in a theater of operations

Army Logistician, Nov-Dec, 2004 by Jerry D. VanVactor

It has been said that the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. Just because a unit deploys to a combat zone does not mean that readiness training should stop. Training should never stop, nor should it become so focused that it results in only one or two response criteria being exercised in various types of scenarios. A unit should determine which characteristics and problems are predictable and recurrent and which are fluke occurrences.

Although major disasters are low-probability events, they must be planned for because even small-scale incidents can detract from a maneuver commander's mission. The expense and effort of preparing for a potential crisis is an investment with little certainty of return. Often, the benefits of preparing for a disaster are invisible in the short term and are recognized only after an actual crisis occurs.

A common mistake in disaster planning is developing response criteria that are an extension of "routine" emergency measures. Actually, the reverse should be true. Adopting disaster-response criteria for all emergency planning could reduce training costs, permit agencies to become familiar with each other's personnel and response methods, and improve response to routine situations.

Crises generally do not render people stunned and unable to act. People will act on their own initiative and take what they believe to be appropriate actions. In fact, the public's willingness to help often overwhelms the responding agencies. Making this fact the focus of disaster planning helps to design response criteria based on what people most likely would do in a crisis situation.

Disaster Defined

What exactly is a disaster? According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a disaster is an occurrence of a severity and magnitude that normally results in deaths, injuries, and property damage and that cannot be managed with routine procedures and Government resources. It usually develops suddenly and unexpectedly and requires immediate, coordinated, and effective response by multiple Government and private-sector organizations to meet human needs and speed recovery. It also requires the responding agencies to react to emergent situations in a nonroutine way under conditions of extreme urgency to maximize the sustainment of life, property, and resources. It is important to note that there are no size parameters in this definition. A disaster can be of any size and can occur at any time without warning.

Emergency Response Planning in Afghanistan

From July 2003 until April 2004, I served as the combat health support officer for the 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), from Fort Drum, New York, while it was deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan, for Operation Enduring Freedom. When our brigade arrived at Kandahar Airfield, we found that no written emergency response plan was in place. Some of the other deployed units, including Fort Drum's 10th Forward Support Battalion Forward Support Medical Company, the 274th Military Police Company (an Army National Guard unit from Washington, D.C.), and the 451st Air Expeditionary Group Fire Service from Travis Air Force Base, California, had separate response criteria for responding to emergencies and standing operating procedures (SOPs) for working at a disaster scene. However, there had been no collaborative planning to facilitate response by multiple agencies to an incident so they could work together smoothly to restore order to potential chaos.

Soon after I arrived, Kandahar Airfield was struck by two separate enemy rockets. Some people, including commanders, first sergeants, command sergeants major, and base defense personnel, rushed to the point of impact and stood around the crater talking about what should be done and who should be in charge, but no one knew what to do or which agency should be in charge of the scene. An on-scene chain of command had never been established. As a result, the commander of the Base Defense Operations Center (BDOC) assumed responsibility for cleaning up the mess and reporting findings to his chain of command.

Installation Force Protection Working Group

To guard against a repeat of this situation in the future, the BDOC commander established an Installation Force Protection Working Group made up of representatives of several different agencies. The group discussed base defense and perimeter security measures and how to employ them, but it never contemplated actions to be taken in an everyday, routine emergency.

Later, an Emergency Response Plan (ERP) Working Group was established to discuss interagency response to situations outside the purview of base defense. The group included the base fire chief, a healthcare planner, military police, and base operations and contract facility management personnel.

During the first few weeks of its existence, the ERP Working Group discussed various types of incidents that would provoke a community-wide response. Baseline planning included introduction of potential scenarios and appropriate response measures. These scenarios ranged from aircraft incidents on the airfield to emergencies at the ammunition storage point. Catastrophic scenarios, such as building collapses, structure fires, hazardous material incidents, and prisoner escapes from the installation's confinement facility, were assessed. The group also reviewed combat-related scenarios, such as indirect-fire, improvised explosive device, and nuclear-biological-chemical contamination incidents.