ANDREWS AFB, Md. –
Editor's Note: This article is the second of a series of three installments to chronicle the efforts of SICOFAA, located at Andrews, and its anticipated humanitarian mission. The next installment will be featured Oct. 3.
Representatives of the System of Cooperation Among the American Air Forces are scheduled to meet at a conference in Victoria, Vancouver, Canada Monday to discuss the details of a large scale humanitarian training mission to take place in Chile in two years.
This tentative training mission, called Cooperation I, hopes to be the first of many to use the combined air forces of SICOFAA to provide aid for such natural disasters as earthquakes, hurricanes, and even volcanoes, said Col. William Stark, USAF and SICOFAA's Secretary General.
As stated in the first annex of the preliminary order for the exercise, the first of these mock missions is to take place on the territory of the Republic of Chile, who is the host party for the mission, in Oct. 2010.
Supplies will be flown and dropped into the simulated effected areas, and rescue missions will evacuate the trapped survivors, said Col. Stark.
There are many steps to be taken before the training mission is ready to be enacted.
"An Executive Order will be written, which is basically the commander's plan for what he wants to accomplish during the operation; the commander's intent," said Col. Stark. "The Chileans are preparing the first draft, and then they are bringing it to the meeting on Sept. 22, at which time changes will be made based on National inputs."
SICOFAA usually has four to five representative meetings a year broken into specific areas to include: personnel, logistics, science and technology, operations, and information.
These meetings focus on these important topics in the air forces in general, however, this year they will be directed specifically towards the mission.
Colonel Stark also stated that, from this gathered information, members will compose a memorandum of understanding, which is an agreement of understanding between nations on the conduct of the exercise to include how it will be done. It is a document for planning and exercising based on principles of equality in order to define roles, the sharing of cost, specific responsibilities, and exercise authority.
In a year, after all of these key pieces of the mission are in place, a simulation will be conducted using computers and virtual reality, said Col. Stark. "We will then be able to see what may be lacking in the plan and then have a year to make changes."
Come fall of the year that follows, the 18 countries that compose SICOFAA, will bring their people together to orchestrate one of the largest humanitarian training missions in history, and from this coalition, a greater protection of citizens during a natural disaster will bring itself into existence.