20 October 2009
By Paul Stein
Exercise Malo E Lelei taught Linton’s 2nd Land Force Group some valuable lessons and was a timely practice for the humanitarian work New Zealand soldiers are doing following the earthquake and tsunami in Samoa, says the Commanding Officer 2 LFG, Colonel Howie Duffy.
A notional 14-hour trip on board HMNZS CANTERBURY saw the Wanganui, Manawatu, and Rangitikei regions transformed into the fictional island nation of ‘Sione Latu’ as more than 300 soldiers from 2 LFG and two crews from Ohakea’s No 3 Squadron, began exercise Malo E Lelei.
Departing Linton on Friday and arriving at the “Port of Manfield” in Sione Latu at midday on Saturday 5 September, the soldiers from 2LFG and helicopter crews began a week-long exercise assisting the Sione Latu population with delivery of humanitarian aid, and restoration of services following a devastating 8.5 magnitude earthquake.
The combined arms Task Group based themselves at Landguards Bluff on the outskirts of Wanganui where they began working with the Sione Latu Emergency Operations Centre (aka Exercise Control) to re-establish infrastructure, deliver aid and provide medical support throughout the region from Wanganui to Kakatahi and Pohangina.
“This exercise scenario was designed to test our capability to deploy at short notice in aid of our Pacific neighbours—it was also about collective training,” said Colonel Duffy. “As per our motto Parum Ad Agere - we must be ready to act.”
“Given the tragic circumstances of the tsunami in Samoa, the exercise turned out to be a dress rehearsal and a very timely practice for the current situation we are dealing with.”
“This is our core business—collective training in pursuit of our vision—to lead and develop war-fighters to deploy on operations. Exercise Malo E Lelei was the first combined arms exercise in a long while.
“The demands placed on us in supporting current operations have meant that we have not conducted as much collective training as we used to. This means we have lost some of the skills needed to work with other corps and for planning combined operations. It is my intent to address this shortfall and maximise all opportunities.”
Malo E Lelei was the first of three Formation level exercises that will culminate in a major combined arms exercise in 2011. Next year the exercise will be a more combat-focused scenario that will build on the combined arms theme.
Throughout the exercise a number of scenarios tested the command team’s planning to ensure they have the right equipment, skills, and processes. They also provided the soldiers in the field with situations where they could demonstrate innovation and their ability to deal with a changing situation.
Each scenario was designed to test specific core skills, while at the same time having a large logistics tail to ensure that specific Logistic Corps training objectives were also met.
“A number of the scenarios were what you would expect as a result of an earthquake; however, where people and cultures are involved there is no standard solution. The soldiers had to think quickly and come up with solutions to many problems ranging from working with upset individuals who are hungry, angry, and have lost their homes, to providing drinkable water,” said Lieutenant Colonel Rob Krushka, Commander of the Task Group.
The task group comprised engineers, medical, logistics (transport, mortuary affairs, catering) and signals elements, as well as the command team that included psychologists, chaplains, public relations and legal.
The first of the medical scenarios saw an aftershock cause a rockslide that required medical staff to be deployed by Air Force helicopter and winched into a quarry where they met up with a transport detachment that had been delivering aid supplies in the area.
Injured quarry workers were assessed and transported to Wanganui Hospital by helicopter and military ambulance where the emergency department triaged and began treating the patients in accordance with the casualty cards attached to each patient.
This was a no-notice exercise for the Wanganui emergency department, and unbeknown to them it was scheduled to be repeated the following day with a simulated motor vehicle accident that saw “patients” delivered to the hospital by helicopter and Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV).
“We tested our nursing responses, our communications responses, how well we triage multiple casualties— it was a really good exercise for the hospital to be involved in,” said hospital spokeswoman Jo Priestly.
Throughout these scenarios not only were the medics testing their skills, so too were the security elements through traffic management and scene security ensuring that unruly media or upset locals did not hamper the work.
One of the security scenarios involved an aircraft incident where an aid aircraft crashed, killing some villagers and a pilot while injuring another crew member. The crowd moved from agitated to upset and finally violent, requiring the security element to show considerable restraint while keeping the aggressive crowd away from the scene to enable medical staff to attend to the injured.
Exercise Malo E Lelei was an almost no-notice exercise. While it was scheduled, the concept and participating units did not know the scale or their involvement. For the Burnham-based High Readiness Group it was no notice; they moved from activation to actual deployment within 48 hours as they flew in to Ohakea to support the recon team ahead of the Task Group arrival.
For the task group to get to ‘Sione Latu’ all of the normal administrative procedures were followed with fitness and medical checks and pre-deployment training. Potential tasks were analysed and equipment and skill sets established. For the logistics team this was a major task to ensure that there were enough rations, fuel, and water, through to ensuring there was enough space on HMNZS CANTERBURY, and how it was going to be loaded.
Often during exercises it is easy to see, and test, the obvious components such as medical, engineers, security, or war fighting skills. Less obvious, and certainly no less important, are the enablers such as communications, catering, transport, environmental health, welfare, and administration. Once deployed, what is taken for granted back home is not always possible, for example, the availability of hot food and showers, computer services, or vehicle repair. These are the responsibility of the logistics team to remember, plan, and implement.
An additional challenge for this exercise was an embedded journalist, Shannon Gillies, who provided experience for the command element, as well as the soldiers, on what it was like working with, and being observed all the time by, a potentially critical media.
“Media has played a big role in this exercise as they would do if this situation was for real. Due to freedom of expression and freedom of the press there’s always an unknown,” said Task Group Public Relations Officer Captain Rebecca Adamson.
LTCOL Krushka said having an embedded reporter as part of the exercise was an interesting experience. “There’s a whole range of new things we have to consider. We’re learning how the media and military can work together to provide a result that is mutually beneficial and supports the whole situation here. That’s the great thing. We’re not used to having the media with us full time and we have learned a lot from this experience.
“This exercise brought together all the elements of the Army, Navy, and Air Force that could be expected to respond to a disaster situation enabling each to increase their understanding of the other allowing them to work together as one force.
“It was great learning opportunity for everyone involved. It was a simple scenario that enabled personnel, probably around 70 percent, who had not worked in this type of environment before to understand the requirements and intricacies of combined arms operations. I personally gained a great deal from the experience and had a thoroughly enjoyable time.”
COL Duffy said he was pleased with how the exercise went.
“Next year the exercise will be a more combat focused scenario that will build on the combined arms theme. My intention was to firstly crawl, walk, then run. Given the importance of what we are doing, I have now changed that to crawl, run, run. This is our core business and we should be good at it," he said.
Learning Together
Exercise Malo e Lelei reinforced the need to do as much combined arms training as possible, says 2 LFG Commanding Officer, COL Howie Duffy.
“As soldiers we can never do enough. We need as many collective training opportunities as we can find.”
The exercise was practical, involving units from right across the Army, all of which had to coordinate and work together to achieve their individual aims.
It also provided valuable experience on what should be done—and the traps to avoid—regarding humanitarian aid and disaster relief. Lessons were learned about the best interoperability planning methods regarding the use of other military assets such as helicopters, transport aircraft, and the multi-role vessel, HMNZS CANTERBURY.
Its focus on short-notice issues, such as the deployment of the High Readiness Platoon Group from Burnham was also very useful for refining procedures to the best possible effect.
“We conduct exercises such as this to help us draw out lessons, particularly for our junior commanders. We can always improve what we do, and we are always looking for ways to do that.”
Sappers Ensure Water Supply
Engineers deployed on the exercise provided debris removal, plumbing and electrical restoration, and, most importantly, water purification. They had the opportunity to deploy the Micro Filtration Reverse Osmosis (MFRO) water treatment facility for the first time to generate potable water.
Using the “polluted” Rangitikei River as the source, 7,000 litres per hour were drawn into MFRO filters. Once the water had sand and grit removed it progressed through filters that removed contaminants as small as 0.1 microns. To put this into perspective, a virus is 0.2 microns and bacteria are 0.5 microns, both of which are filtered out of the water.
The water drawn from the Rangitikei was drinkable following microfiltration. After taste testing was conducted, the water was put through reverse osmosis to improve the taste. Had the water source been contaminated with salt water, reverse osmosis would have desalinated the water to render it drinkable.
The drinking quality of the water that the engineers are able to achieve is better than the tap water that is available in some urban areas. MFRO operator Sapper Scott Mudge says, “The water we produce is second to none, and we’re able to produce it fast.”
For coastal areas that were cut off due to flooding or because road access was still unavailable, engineers were able use inflatable boats to deliver aid supplies.