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By Lt.Col. Jim St.Clair
South Carolina Joint Force Headquarters Public Affairs
VARNVILLE, S.C. – A team of officers from the Colombian Army and Navy spent this past weekend in South Carolina for the latest bilateral exchange between the Republic of Colombia and the state of South Carolina as part of the newly formed State Partnership Program (SPP). South Carolina and Colombia formally established their SPP relationship last July. The SPP is a joint venture of equal partners and as well as one of shared responsibilities in addressing transnational concerns.
The visit was specifically timed to coincide with Ardent Sentry, a NORAD and USNORTHCOM sponsored exercise for participating military units to practice disaster response activities and coordination procedures. The Colombian military particularly wanted to see and learn how the National Guard responds to large scale disasters. Maj. David King, the SPP director for the S.C. National Guard said, “Our intent is to show members of the Colombian military how the U.S. uses the national response framework to bring all levels of civilian and military response together under one unified commander. We also want to give the Colombians an appreciation for the way the U.S. bases all emergency response activities on requests made by county and state government.”
The S.C. National Guard had more than 1,500 soldiers and airmen conducting field training in seven counties in southeastern S.C. as well as the Dept. of Energy’s Savannah River Site. The S.C. National Guard’s portion of Ardent Sentry entails a simulated hurricane striking South Carolina’s coast. Response capabilities tested for the exercise included water purification, helicopter sling-load operations, debris removal, points of distribution support, hazardous materials response, search and rescue and cyber-threat response.
The Colombian team was led by Col. Fernando Cardenas, the director of J5 for the Colombian Joint Forces. Accompanying him was Lt.Col. Jesus Alberto Gomez, the commander of the Disaster Prevention and Response Battalion and Capt. Andres Francisco Escobar, the Naval Air Group commander for the Caribbean and Recovery Group. Escobar also served as his team’s translator and speaks fluent English thanks to having grown up in Georgia when his father was posted to Ft. Benning. The team was escorted by Lt. Col. Aaron Larsen from the U.S. Embassy’s staff in Bogotá.
“We are learning the planning for disasters, the civilian part as well of the military part. The big difference is that in Colombia we do not have a National Guard,” Escobar said. “This is something new for us. It’s good to see how people conduct exercises like this. We would like to learn lessons from this exercise to use during our country’s disaster response.” Colombia’s natural hazards include primarily flooding and the occasional volcanic eruption.
In addition to visiting several exercise venues for Ardent Sentry, the Colombians also received a briefing from Joe Farmer, the public information director for the South Carolina’s Emergency Management Division, about how the state responds to disasters. South Carolina Deputy Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. Lester Eisner, also briefed the Colombians in the Joint Operations Center in West Columbia. Other stops included visits to McEntire Joint National Guard Base outside Columbia as well as the forward deployed S.C. National Guard Fusion Cell and Public Affairs’ Media Operations Center in Varnville.
The next step in the SPP timeline is a trip planned for September in which a team from the S.C. National Guard will travel to Colombia to observe one of their military exercises.
| Date Taken: | 05.20.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 05.23.2013 17:23 |
| Story ID: | 107492 |
| Location: | VARNVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Hometown: | COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 95 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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