MAGAZINE
In July , Land Power sat down with
LANDCOM ’ s Deputy Commander , British Army Lieutenant General Richard Cripwell , to gauge his thoughts on how we as the NATO Military Alliance handled the Coronavirus pandemic . Here ’ s what he said .
LP : It ’ s been several months since COVID-19 mitigation measures went into effect in NATO , SHAPE and across ACO , including here in our own headquarters . In terms of the work we do within the scope of our mission and the ways we ’ d been doing it before Coronavirus , what were your initial thoughts on our ability to continue our mission under COVID mitigation ?
RC : So , I think firstly the way in which the host nation approached COVID , made some big decisions early on which were focused on the safety and security of the people here in the country . The travel was one example , but there are many ways in which the host nation to a great deal emphasized the safety and security of people here .
Secondly I think the way SHAPE reacted , and the way in which it set the tone for how the Alliance as a whole would be approaching the pandemic — the way in which it looked at manning , the importance of outputs , the vital requirement to maintain readiness — were all important in themselves , but very important messages to subordinate commands .
FALL 2020 group met twice a week , briefing the commander as a result twice a week , but it unknowingly gave a great deal of visibility to the challenges that we faced and a great deal of visibility to the decisions that were made . Everybody understood what was being done and why it was being done , and I think that was hugely important , again for the confidence of our people to understand what was being done .
The commander was very clear on the tone of how we would do all business , the importance of maintaining outputs , whilst doing everything that we could to ensure the safety and security of all people .
And out of that came our transition plan , a very clear sense of instructions , of standards , of conditions that allowed us to look at what was being done at SHAPE , to understand what was being done by the host nation , and understand the impacts of all of those decisions on the way in which we did business . So that , when we were in looking at things , such as increasing our manning looking at facilities on camp , or many of the things that we do , the process by which those decisions was made was very clearly understood , the process by which we would make changes was very clear , it was very auditable , and people also understood that it wasn ’ t simply about opening up . These conditions applied for a myriad of circumstances .
I think within this headquarters there were a number of things that we did that were important right from the start . The commander was very clear on the tone of how we would do all business , the importance of maintaining outputs , whilst doing everything that we could to ensure the safety and security of all people . We were doing temperature testing right from the start for everybody who came into this headquarters . We made sure that people had access to the headquarters — the ones who had to have it in order to do business , and not just for people who wanted to come here . We regularly disinfected all of the offices and the entire camp , creating a safe working environment for our people who had to come in to work . The mind set of people not being at home , but being on call reinforced the notion that everybody had a part to play in maintaining the output of the headquarters .
An equally important thing that we did right from the start was to create a working group , based initially on our national representatives and medical expertise , to make sure that we as a headquarters understood the impact that COVID was having on us and how we would effectively mitigate that . In the early days the working
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