All Things Maritime And Haiti

There are so many things to cover. I have not seen much leadership in terms of setting expectations or an explanation from leadership in the State Department explaining how this major operation will unfold. Plenty of information released today in press conferences, but very little stage setting from what I saw.

A few notes. The Red Cross was reported to be out of medicine on Wednesday. UN Dispatch has two interesting items. First:

On a conference call with Medicines sans Frontiere moments ago, a representative in Haiti said that all of the hospitals to which it would normally refer patients have either collapsed or are otherwise unusable. All MSF can do at the moment is administer first aid. There are no "referral" options for secondary care beyond first aid, but MSF is exploring options to deploy a "floating hospital" to Haiti.

That report goes on to highlight reasons why the UN mission to Haiti may have been compromised by the overwhelming damage, at least for the time being. As an organization it is currently self involved with reestablishment, unable to engage the surrounding issues.

In a later report, UN Dispatch discusses the health care issues facing the population. While reading it I thought back to the TB outbreak on Comfort last year.

Want to see useful open source technology in action? Check these guys out. Google has a cool little tech operation for Haiti from their Crisis Response Team (yes they actually have one). Works with Google Maps.

The Coast Guard

The Coast Guard always arrives first when disaster strikes near the US. What an amazing organization, and when we consider it is smaller than the NYPD, I would argue we get more per dollar as a nation out of the Coast Guard than any other entity in government. This is a great report of ongoing Coast Guard activities by Lt. Cmdr Chris O'Neil. The 270 ft Coast Guard Cutter Forward arrived just after dawn and did an assessment of the Port Au Prince port.

Coast Guard personnel observed multiple oil and fuel spills as well as possible sewage spills in the area of the port, about one to one and a half miles from the coast. They also reported seeing multiple small fires along the shoreline and significant damage to or destruction of infrastructure at the port.

Damage to port infrastructure is reported to include the port's container crane and other cargo cranes. Some of the cranes are reported to be completely submerged and others appear damaged but the extent of the damage cannot yet be fully determined.

The article also discusses two Jayhawk sorties for medical evacuations on Wednesday and the work conducted by five different C-130s. How many C-130s does the Coast Guard have again? The Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk arrived off Haiti Wednesday afternoon, and the Coast Guard Cutters Tahoma and Valiant will be in the area by Thursday. The Tahoma is loaded with relief supplies for earthquake survivors, but one of the Cutters is expected to stay at Guantanamo Bay providing a 3 in Haiti / 1 in Guantanamo Bay arrangement. You can see video of the C-130 flyover here, and some additional photos here. I very highly encourage folks to view this 7 minute video of Admiral Thad Allen on the situation, it is excellent.

• The Coast Guard Cutter Valiant is a 210-foot medium endurance cutter homeported in Miami, Fla.
• The Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk, a 270-foot medium endurance cutter, is homeported in Key West, Fla.
• The Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma is a 270-foot medium endurance cutter homeported in Portsmouth, N.H.
• The Coast Guard Cutter Forward, a 270-foot medium endurance cutter, is homeported in Portsmouth, Va.

The Navy and Marine Corps

It takes longer for the Navy and Marines to get anywhere than it does for a service like the Air Force, or in this case the Coast Guard. While the Air Force opens up the airport and the Coast Guard inspects the port, the Navy will not show up until Thursday. The time of arrival for the USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) is unclear, but it doesn't matter. The helicopters will arrive long before the ship does, and if there are enough helicopters moving over the city the people will notice. The pictures on Navy.mil show HS-7 and HSL-11 deploying to USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70). There have been several indications by Navy information personnel to expect updates to the carriers Twitter and Facebook pages.

I want to make a brief point here. There have been 3 Admirals on C-SPAN in the last 6 months, and only once was it on an issue related to the sea - that was the BMD change. Every other time you see an Admiral on C-SPAN it is Mullen or the topic is prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The media is focused on Haiti, and the symbol of American power is going to be the largest thing everyone can see - USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70). Be visible, take pictures from the air that include the carrier, and turn USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) into a symbol of hope. The Navy doesn't have a single Admiral actually in a Navy post today (which means Stavridis and Mullen don't count) who is recognizable by the average American, but every American knows what a Nimitz class aircraft carrier looks like - as does the rest of the world. Showcase the ship, because it is a symbol and symbolism matters in soft power. The whole world is watching.

Also expected to arrive tomorrow is USS Higgins (DDG 76), which is on the home stretch of her deployment. Originally deploying as part of the Nimitz CSG from the Pacific, USS Higgins (DDG 76) spent most of her time in the Med operating as the BMD ship for 6th Fleet. According to the Navy USS Higgins (DDG 76) will provide afloat logistical services for Coast Guard helicopters. I suspect that given the length of her deployment to date, her participation in the relief effort will be brief but necessary until other assets arrive.

USS Bataan (LHD 5), USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43), and USS Carter Hall (LSD 50) are coming with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU 22). USS Normandy (CG 60), USS Underwood (FFG 36) and USS John L. Hall (FFG 32) will also deploy. Navy News has created a Twitter group for those who want to follow all the government activities. I suggest adding it to RSS.

As most of us know, but no one outside the maritime community appears aware, the USNS Comfort (T-AH-20) will take 5 days to get underway. The hospital ships are on 5 days readiness, and that actually means it takes 5 days from the moment the ship is put on notice before she can sail. Hospital ships are not rapid response assets. However, I think this is important for us to note.

Hospitals are said to have been devastated and overwhelmed by the injured. One clinic director sent out an e-mail plea after the quake: "Port-au-Prince is devastated, lot of deaths. SOS. SOS."

Joseph said Haiti was most in need of a hospital ship stationed in Haitian waters, as well as supplies to help keep residents safe and warm.

Joseph is Ambassador Raymond Joseph, his appeal for a hospital ship was the first public government request made to the US in his AM press conference on Wednesday morning, as recorded in the time line at the AlJazeera Blog. That is best evidence regarding the influence of Naval Medical Diplomacy you will ever find, better than any population polling data ever produced. When talking hospital ships, can you say strategic asset?

Considerations

Half the Haitian coast guard personnel stationed at the port were killed by the earthquake.

There is a legitimate National Security Risk Assessment that has yet to be discussed anywhere in the media, at least that I have seen. The annual immigration season from Haiti to Florida by sea usually begins in February every year. If it has historically been easy for Haitians to choose the risks of sea immigration when they have a home and family, how much easier is it for a Haitian to risk the dangerous journey when their home is destroyed or family is dead? This is a critical point, because the US is in big trouble if 100,000 people, or potentially a lot more, attempt a massive migration at sea following this catastrophe. The Obama administration is going to have to spend money - potentially many billion dollars - to keep three million homeless people in Haiti. This a serious problem that will directly impact you and me unless you are somehow stupid enough to believe the US is ready to absorb the cost of a mass immigration of a population with a high illiteracy rate at the same time the government intends to pass National Health Care to protect the poorest in our country.

Do the math. How many soldiers does your COIN manual say it takes to control a population of 3 million homeless, hungry people? Haiti has no military, and the Haitian National Police numbers 8500 - for the entire country. Even if we count the 2nd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division and 2 Marine battalions, we come up well short of what will be necessary based on the doctrine for population security adopted by our lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The US will lead in Haiti, even ahead of the now destroyed Haitian government and until we decide it is time for the UN to step in. In the 2004 Tsumani, the US had this amazing partner that did a tremendous job - India. Who will play the role of India in Haiti? It matters a lot if Haiti is as bad as some have estimated, because this has the potential of being the largest military effort in the western hemisphere in at least a century.