War Is Boring

A 6.2-magnitude earthquake killed at least 13 people in Costa Rica last week. Among the first responders was a joint U.S. Army-U.S. Air Force team flying Blackhawk helicopters. “The team, comprised of Army and Air Force aviation crews, rescue, medical and support members, supported ongoing efforts to search and locate victims of the natural disaster,” the Air Force reported.

The rescue fell under the direction of U.S. Southern Command, which has made humanitarian assistance and disaster relief its major mission. Since 2007 a chain of U.S. Navy ships, including USS Kearsarge, has cruised Latin America handing out free medical care, and the Air Force has ongoing humanitarian operations in the region, as well. The two services closely coordinate their activities, according to Air Force Lieutenant General Norman Seip, who spoke to reporters on Monday:

Southern Command, you know, puts out a Theater Campaign Plan that [theater boss] Admiral [James] Stavridis coordinates on and approves, and then each of the components, with their resources and with their capabilities for that upcoming year, working with SOUTHCOM, who’s worked with all the country teams and the ambassadors, lay out a game plan for whether it be medical readiness exercises, whether it be, you know, the USS Comfort going down on a, you know, six-month various port visits there.

But we deconflict, we collaborate, we try to, you know, maximize each of potential there, and where we can share assets, we certainly do so. But we make sure that, again, it’s all lined up with the ambassadors, with the SOUTHCOM Theater Security Cooperation Plan itself, that comes from the Theater Campaign Plan. 

Comfort‘s cruise this spring will continue what Kearsarge, and USS Boxer before her, so admirably advanced: using good deeds to win hearts and minds and draw Latin America closer to North American interests.

(Photo: Air Force)

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