CFE-DM joins US delegation to China on disaster management
01.20.2015
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii – Mara Langevin, a disaster management and humanitarian assistance advisor for the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (CFE-DM), joined a team of U.S. military and civilian humanitarian assistance and disaster relief experts during the U.S. Army Pacific's annual Disaster Management Exchange (DME) with officials of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in China Jan. 12-19.
The first four days of the event were dedicated to an Expert Academic Discussion (EAD) in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, before approximately 70 U.S. attendees and their PLA equivalents traveled to Haikou, on Hainan Island, for a Command Post Exchange (CPX) and Practical Field Exchange (PFE). A natural disaster scenario in a fictional third-party country was used to synchronize the two nations’ disaster response efforts.
“The coordination between the U.S. and the PLA was amazing,” said Langevin. “They were working side by side – members of different teams, the search and rescue teams, the medical teams – it was really great to see how the two nations have progressed in disaster response coordination.”
For the culminating event, the CPX converted to a Multinational Coordination Center, which provided direction and guidance to the PFE scenario responders for the first time during the DME. Elements of the field exchange included collapsed structures, victims in water and an internally displaced persons camp.
“This was the best [Disaster Management Exchange] that has taken place,” said Langevin, who served as the U.S. assessment team lead during the exchange. “It built on last year’s CPX and PFE, and took it to another level to include coordination between the two exchanges; this added a real-world element that had not existed before.”
The DME began in 1998, and has broadened in scope each year to improve military-to-military coordination between U.S. Army Pacific and the PLA in the area of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
