Humanitarian and disaster relief training at Immediate Response 16

Photo By Sgt. Jesiah Dixon | Civil Affairs Soldiers and security forces from ten allied and partner nations recieve training from Jeff Miller, an advisor to U.S. European Command (EUCOM), for the USAID , on humanitarian aid and disaster at exercise Immediate Response 16. U.S. Army photo by SGT Jesiah Dixon  

NOVO MESTO, SLOVENIA

09.12.2016

Story by Sgt. Jesiah Dixon 

U.S. Army Europe and Africa     

NOVO MESTO, Slovenia -- U.S. Army Soldiers from the 83rd Civil Affairs Battalion, stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, along with soldiers from multinational allies and partner nations received training on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief as part of exercise Immediate Response 16 at Novo Mesto barracks, Slovenia.

The training included educators from the U.S. European command and was targeted at civil affairs soldiers, seeking to add to their knowledge base, as well as educate them on specific humanitarian programs sponsored by the United States Government. "The idea is that we want to educate folks that have maybe not been exposed to this in the past," said Dana Chivers, an advisor to EUCOM for USAID, and the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). "The international response in a disaster is typically quite different in techniques and norms than fighting a war for example."

"In response to recent world events; including the refugee crisis in Europe, and worldwide natural disasters, Immediate Response will feature a large-scale humanitarian assistance event," explained Chivers, "and refreshing soldiers and security forces on proper roles and procedures is vital to the overall success of the mission."

The trainers expressed the importance of educating members of the military community about humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. "We like to get the point across that very often in exercises you have role-players. You would tell someone to role-play the humanitarian community, and the role-players very often will pretend to be humanitarians, but act like the military," said Jeff Miller, a humanitarian assistance advisor to EUCOM. "We like to educate people that humanitarians are not necessarily going to act like that, and might not might not want to be a willing participant in something you're doing to make scenarios more realistic."

Immediate Response is a multinational, brigade-level command post exercise utilizing computer-assisted simulations and field training exercises spanning two countries, Croatia and Slovenia. The exercise includes more than 1,900 Soldiers and security forces from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
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U.S. Army Europe is uniquely positioned in its 51 country area of responsibility to advance American strategic interests in Europe and Eurasia. The relationships we build during more than 1,000 theater security cooperation events in more than 40 countries each year lead directly to support for multinational contingency operations around the world, strengthen regional partnerships and enhance global security.

• Date Taken: 09.12.2016
• Date Posted: 09.13.2016 05:13
• Story ID: 209385
• Location: NOVO MESTO, SI