Photo By Staff Sgt. William Sallette | HE Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, Ministry of Disaster Management and...... read more read more
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DHAKA, Bangladesh – The sixth annual Pacific Resilience Disaster Response Exercise and Exchange, co-hosted by the Bangladesh Armed Forced Division (AFD) and U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC), concluded on Sept. 3 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The closing ceremony included remarks from the Lt. Gen. Md Mainul Islam, Principal Staff Officer, AFD, Mr. David Meale, Chargé d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy to Bangladesh, and HE Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.
The DREE built on the accomplishments of last year’s exercise and expanded the communication between multiple agencies in the event of a catastrophic disaster in Bangladesh.
The four-day event convened more than 150 participants from the multiple nations, non-governmental and international organizations to work through a phased tabletop exercise (TTX) and a field training exercise (FTX).
“This exercise really gives all stakeholders the opportunity to get to know what each others responsibilities and capabilities are, said Lt. Col. Md Jahangir Alam, Joint Operations, AFD. “This makes the relief efforts and response time much quicker which is precisely what would be needed in the case of any major disaster.”
Participants practiced logistical and medical emergency scenarios, identified any gaps in plans and procedures that are currently in place, and increased coordination between emergency management and aviation stakeholders. This year’s exercise also incorporated media in response planning.
“Next year, we hope to conduct the first of many future regional DREE events, where participants from many countries contribute to an increasingly complex and dynamic set of exercises,” said Meale. “It is imperative that civil-military cooperation continues to grow in future DREEs, and that regional partners both from the military and from non-military organizations participate in future DREE exercises.”
During the FTX, participants created a Multi-National Coordination Center (MNCC), whose mission is to integrate response efforts from the military as well as civilian government agencies and multiple international organizations. The FTX also involved the loading and unloading of relief supplies from an aircraft while conceptually managing the distribution of these supplies throughout the region.
“This was my first DREE and I was very impressed,” said Lt. Col. Dean Wood, Deputy of Operations, 8th Theater Sustainment Command. “I was impressed with the overall operation, the coordination between the military’s, but most importantly the coordination between the military and the government and international organizations.”
An extensive After Action Review (AAR) was held before the closing ceremony in order to collect information in order to improve on what was done during this exercise for future DREE exercises.
“The AAR is always an important part of an exercise like this,” said Lt. Col. Dean Wood, Deputy of Operations, 8th Theater Sustainment Command. “It’s important to take what we have learned during the exercise, good and bad, so we can apply it the next time to improve the overall exercise.”
“It is imperative that civil-military cooperation continues to grow in future DREEs, and that regional partners both from the military and from non-military organizations participate in future DREE exercises,” said Meale. “It is also crucial that NGOs and international organizations play important roles in disaster relief and humanitarian assistance exercises, because we will all be called into action after a major earthquake happens.”
For more information on Pacific Resilience Disaster Response Exercise and Exchange please go to the following links.
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| Date Taken: | 09.03.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 09.09.2015 13:50 |
| Story ID: | 175528 |
| Location: | DHAKA, BD |
| Web Views: | 83 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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