The Personnel Recovery Council is a semi-annual two-day event that brings together individuals involved in the recovery of isolated, missing, detained, or captured personnel. Representatives from the Department of State, the FBI, and United States Divisions were on hand to discuss their efforts to find and recover isolated service members or contractors.
Members of the U.S. Division-North, 3rd Infantry Division, personnel recovery section gave an overview of their experiences with rescue and recovery in their area of operations in the past months, and to learn is been happening in USD-South and Center, said Lt. Col. Marvin Chavous, the USD-N personnel recovery officer.
Chavous said they also wanted to learn more about personnel recovery and establish contacts with other components and agencies like the FBI.
“Attending the council also ensures that all of our personnel recovery officers are trained, has support for their programs, and allows everybody the opportunity to make contacts that we can use when all available forces and resources are needed in order to recover an isolated person,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Scott Pierce, director of the United States Forces-Iraq Personnel Recovery Coordination Cell.
Coming to the council provides an opportunity to establish relationships within the personnel recovery community, said Kevin O’Connor, a DoS special agent at the U.S. Embassy regional security office. It provides the ability to find mutual solutions to issues they may be facing.
Sergeant Maj. Mike Masson, the Asymmetric Warfare Group sergeant major, said he came to let council members know how his section contributes to rescue missions and to take away a better understanding of operational level assets and systems.
“Personnel recovery is a relatively new concept for the Army,” said Chavous. “I see it becoming more important, especially if we include the asymmetrical warfare that we’ve seen in the past few years; it will have great significance in the future of military operations.”
“Its important to be familiar with the systems that we’ve set in place to respond to a capture and what we do to get isolated persons back,” Masson said.
The council was also a chance for agencies like the FBI to interact with service members, learn what works for military personnel recovery sections and to explain the FBI’s capabilities and limitations, said Joe Clark, a personnel recovery specialist for the FBI personnel recovery coordination group.
As the Department of Defense presence in Iraq draws down, the State Department will be increasing its role in personnel recovery. The FBI will also be directly involved in helping and assisting DoS, Clark said. It’s very important that the FBI understands how DoD operates and the lessons they’ve learned from the operational environment.
“Operation New Dawn and the drawdown is going to change the organization,” Pierce said. “We need to make sure that the personnel recovery program can adapt to those changes and is sufficient enough to respond to continuing threats that are out there.”
| Date Taken: | 07.31.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 07.31.2010 03:39 |
| Story ID: | 53731 |
| Location: | CAMP VICTORY, IQ |
| Web Views: | 269 |
| Downloads: | 124 |
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