Military Review English Edition July-August 2015 | Page 80

and directed the support of fellow USAFRICOM
components. Third, USARAF relied on its main
command post in Vicenza, integrating key specialties from across the staff to support forward operations in Liberia and enabling USARAF to act as its
own land component command. This impromptu
approach allowed USARAF to rapidly build a JFC
capable of meeting immediate mission requirements.
However, assigned forces would have enabled more

detailed planning and reduced operational risk that
accrued over time.

Operational Approach

From 16 September until the transfer of authority
on 25 October, USARAF led the JFC. The mission was
to support U.S. humanitarian assistance efforts, led by
USAID, in support of the international effort to contain Ebola. USAFRICOM directed the JFC to perform
the following key tasks:
Establish a JFC headquarters for C2
of military activities and to coordinate
U.S. government interagency and foreign
international relief efforts.
Establish an engineering capability
in Liberia to provide site selection and
construction of Ebola treatment units
(ETUs), the Monrovia Medical Unit,
medical training sites, and logistical support areas.
Establish a training capability able
to train five hundred health-care workers
per week.
Enforce force health and protection measures to mitigate environmental
threats and to protect key personnel,
equipment, facilities, and infrastructure.
Establish and sustain an intermediate staging base in western Africa to
support operations.
Transition to civil control after setting the conditions.
Within the context of joint operations under a geographic combatant
command such as USAFRICOM,
ASCCs are uniquely qualified to set the
theater by providing a mix of speed and
posture not inherent in other Army organizations. Even with the recent force
structure reductions, ASCCs provide
the DOD an early-entry capability,
including C2, engineering, logistics,
and medical capabilities. Our experience on the continent was invaluable
(Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Brien Vorhees, 55th Signal Company (Combat Camera))
in setting the theater and setting the
A worker decontaminates a caregiver as the caregiver leaves the patient area of an
joint operations area. The JFC focused
active Ebola treatment center 22 November 2014 in Suakoko, Liberia. The treatment center was constructed in support of Operation United Assistance.
its efforts across four primary lines of

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July-August 2015  MILITARY REVIEW