THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 24, 1995 TAG: 9504240037
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL SIZEMORE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
The Marine general was getting a close-up look at the new world order, and it wasn't a pretty picture.
He was trained to fight wars, not do humanitarian work. Yet here he was trying to organize a disaster relief operation and a roomful of civilians kept getting in his face.
And then there was that obstreperous French colonel, who kept trying to run the show. Not to mention the Australians, Koreans, Brazilians and Filipinos. And the press was completely out of control.
Fortunately for the general, it was all make-believe.
The two-day exercise at the Armed Forces Staff College last week was part of a continuing effort to prepare midlevel officers for the rapidly changing demands being placed on U.S. military forces in the post-Cold War world. It's a world in which, more and more, the military's traditional war-fighting role is giving way to peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, often performed with other nations and civilian relief organizations.
Known as Operation Purple Hope, the exercise is part of the Joint and Combined Staff Officers School, a 12-week course for officers from all the military services.
The students assumed new identities during the two-day exercise, playing roles in a multinational relief effort responding to a typhoon in Thailand. Some of the civilian roles are played by students from Old Dominion University's graduate program in international studies.
In one of the five seminars, the Marine general acting as chief of staff for the joint task force - in real life, Air Force Lt. Col. Randy James - gathered his fellow military officers together in a closed planning session, shutting out the civilian relief workers. He soon came to regret it.
One of those shut out was Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Sharpe, portraying a representative of an Islamic disaster relief organization - complete with an eye patch and a kaffiyeh, an Arab headdress. He stalked over to a computer and pounded out an indignant press release, and within hours a newspaper published for the training exercise trumpeted the news with headlines like ``Thousands continue to die; aid organizations shut out,'' and ``Humanitarian relief or mortal combat?''
In a chaotic news conference interrupted by protests from the outraged civilians, James was badgered by reporters demanding to know if the United States was using the typhoon as a pretext for military intervention against anti-government guerrillas operating in the region.
``Our goal is humanitarian, but we need to protect the people we're trying to feed,'' James shouted above the din. ``We're not going in there intending to launch any combat operations.''
And what of his earlier contention that the civilian relief organizations weren't ``key players'' in the mission? That was a ``misstatement,'' a humbled James conceded.
``We can't just go in there and take over,'' said Army Maj. Janis Wheat, portraying the commander of U.S. forces in the coalition. Her comment, together with James' backpedaling, seemed to mollify the civilians, and the planning went forward in relative harmony.
Mark Kemenovich, an ODU doctoral candidate who acts as a liaison with the officers school, said the exercise adds a new dimension to the officers' training.
``The objective is to turn their thinking around and make them realize force isn't the answer in a humanitarian mission,'' he said.
Sometimes that means breaking down the command-and-control mindset that some officers bring to the course.
``In the military back in the '60s, you'd never have seen anything like this,'' said Kemenovich, who was a Marine sniper in Vietnam. ``It was `You go here and do that.' ''
The play-acting tends to promote a light-hearted atmosphere, but the mood can turn serious.
During one seminar, Kemenovich said, he noticed that ``one guy was very sincere. He was really taking it seriously. When I complimented him, he told me he was just back from Rwanda. He said, `When you see the bodies stacked up on the side of the road, suddenly it's more real.' ''
For Army Maj. Bob Drumm, last week's exercise had the flavor of reality, too. He participated in the Army's relief efforts after Hurricane Andrew devastated south Florida and when Somalia was racked by famine and feuding warlords.
``What the military brings to an effort like this is organization,'' Drumm said. ``Our primary focus is still the task of war-fighting. We will never lose that focus. But there's a lot of things in our training that translate to this type of mission'' - things like reconnaissance, communication, engineering and security work.
``It's not the John Wayne, take-the-beach, Desert Storm type of thing,'' he said, but it's still a worthwhile effort.
Peacekeeping is now an officially recognized component of U.S. military strategy, despite recent attacks on the concept by the new Republican majority in Congress.
A new mission statement issued this year, replacing a 1992 version of U.S. strategy, recognizes the peacekeeping role for the first time, even though a House-passed national security bill would reduce support for U.N. peacekeeping missions and would restrict the president's authority to place U.S. troops under foreign commanders.
The Clinton administration calls the House bill an unacceptable infringement on executive powers. Senate prospects are uncertain. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Sharpe, playing an official of an Islamic
relief organization - complete with eye patch and Arab headdress -
listens to a discussion about a simulated crisis during an exercise
at the Armed Forces Staff College last week.
by CNB