Members of the Thai military learn about the Defense Department’s “Neo” tracking system, used to catalog noncombatants during an evacuation, at combined Marine forces headquarters at Cobra Gold 2005 on Sunday. Officials anticipate the exercise will better response time to disasters. (Erik Slavin / Stars and Stripes)
CHIANG MAI, Thailand — To casual observers a room of officers poring over laptops may not spark much excitement.
But the least visually exciting aspect of Cobra Gold 2005 may turn out to be its most important activity.
The approximately 380 servicemembers and agency workers involved in the May 9-12 high-level staff exercise made recommendations on multinational humanitarian assistance that could determine the course of future disaster relief.
The findings from the exercise will be submitted to Pacific command in August when they convene to review the multinational force standard operating procedure, a thick document that guides all aspects of humanitarian aid.
Senior planners say they hope to have a practical assessment of the procedure, in order to make disaster response more efficient.
“When a [servicemember is] doing something for the first time, it will put a little more order to what is by nature a very chaotic situation,” said Fred Grant, III Marine Expeditionary Force Tactical Exercise Group director.
Most years, Cobra Gold features a command post exercise, in which staff directs servicemembers who are actually participating in the field. Because of the Dec. 26 tsunami, the annual event was scaled back.
This week’s exercise has more of a “war college” feel to it, officials say.
On the opening day of the exercise, an earthquake triggered a tsunami on the fictional island of Pacifica.
Military officers from all over the world developed assignments based on their specialties and national missions. They included security, intelligence, logistics and all other functions applied to a disaster relief mission.
Along the way, many things went wrong. Pacifica was hit with disease, attacks from rebel paramilitary factions and more rough weather.
Each day, the working groups received a problem set. For example, a public affairs team would have to find ways to overcome hostile perceptions of the U.S. military. After reviewing the conditions, they’d list a short answer to the problem and devise a more detailed plan.
Afternoons, senior planners would pick out three groups to share their long answers with everyone.
“The feedback you get is pretty impressive, not only in recommendations but in saying, ‘Hey, this is pretty good as it is,’” said staff exercise co-director Marine Col. Ken Lissner.
The current procedure’s transition planning received accolades, Lissner said. But most officials agreed sharing information across the disparate groups involved needs improvement, Lissner said.
During limited military missions, a small section of the procedural document usually is dedicated to dealing with the international community, Grant said. Because of the Dec. 26 tsunami’s scale, that formerly small section has grown into the leadership’s biggest challenge, he said.
That is why the exercise has far more relief-agency participation than in the past, Grant said.
“We used to have one or two playing the role of all NGOs,” he said. “Now we have many more over a wide spectrum and we’ve got many more different ideas.”
