Exercise COPE NORTH Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief Success

2/24/2014 - ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam -- 

The first several days of Pacific Air Forces' multilateral exercise Cope North is designed to provide realistic training scenarios for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief events.  As part of the exercise, on Feb. 19, a coalition of airmen, including members of the U.S. Air Force, Japan Air Self-Defense Force and the Royal Australian Air Force, helped deliver urgent food and commodities to the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas on the island of Rota following months without their regular resupply by sea.

 

On Feb. 17, the commercial barge that was to resupply the island was once again unable to enter the Rota port due to high winter sea state.  Consequently, Governor Eloy Inos declared Rota under a state of emergency and requested assistance from the Department of Defense.  After coordination with Joint Region Marianas, Headquarters PACAF and the Department of Homeland Security, the 36th Wing on Andersen AFB along with the Cope North exercise planners expanded the exercise scenario to include humanitarian assistance for Rota.

 

Relief supplies from the Guam Red Cross were moved to Andersen by truck and prepped for flight, then loaded aboard coalition aircraft by the 36th Contingency Response Group.  Cargo, personnel, and equipment were moved to Rota using tactical airlift from all of the countries participating in the Cope North exercise.   All personnel and equipment were then airlifted back to Guam.

 

It may have seemed like déjà vu to some of the airmen from these countries. In November, Andersen's 36 CRG operated out of Tacloban and Clark airfields in the Philippines while coalition C-130s from Yokota Air Base's 36 Airlift Squadron, the RAAF, and the JASDF were all delivering relief supplies to the typhoon-stricken area.

 

"The shift from exercise scenario to Rota emergency relief was seamless," said Col. Thomas "Doc" Livingston, 36^th CRG commander. "We built an outstanding working relationship throughout the Operation Damayan relief effort, and exercises like Cope North reinforce the 'muscle memory' of how each nation operates and the best way to dovetail capabilities into a complete relief package.  The coordination between the aircrew and the ground teams was phenomenal."

 

Cope North exercise director for U.S. forces, Col. John "Spidey" Parker, noted the framework built by the participating nations allowed the teams to incorporate the new mission into the exercise on-the-fly.

 

"The HADR portion of Cope North enhances regional capabilities to respond to crises and lays the foundation for the expansion of regional cooperation in the face of real world contingencies," said Parker, who is also the 35th Operations Group commander at Misawa Air Base, Japan. "The people of Rota expressed a need and we were able to join forces and rapidly and successfully meet that need.

 

"It speaks volumes about our teamwork and partnership among the exercise participants to successfully execute a HA/DR mission under the overall exercise scenario," said Parker.

 

The coalition air forces were also joined by the U.S. Navy's Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25 on Andersen AFB. HSC-25 provided vertical insertion of teams into the Northern Marianas and the pickup of a simulated downed airman during the search and rescue scenario.