The job I was given today by the President was to lead a U.S. task force. And as the President said, we're trying to accomplish three things with this task force:
First, to work with the partners that the President talked about today -- Australia, Japan and India -- to see if we can form a core group to provide coordination and assistance to the terrible tragedy. I had the chance earlier this morning to speak to the three ambassadors here to begin the process of that coordination, and I also proposed that we have the first conference call of me and my counterparts in those three capitals tonight at 10 o'clock. And so, that is what we will do.
Second, to help to coordinate the interagency response here in Washington. The President, as you know, from watching him as he walked out, had a National Security Council meeting today and we have spent the morning helping to, I think, get the interagency organized. People, yesterday and the day before, were already doing a tremendous amount of work. We'd like to just make sure that that work can be facilitated and goes as easily as possible.
And then, third, to see what more can be done to get the international community to help with these relief efforts. And so, we've begun the process of trying to respond in this way, and we're going to take this now to a new level. And that is the job I have been given and the job I intend to carry out.
And on the military side:
As you can imagine, our commander of the Pacific Command, Admiral Tom Fargo, has been extremely busy and active over the last 72 hours, in contact with the various chiefs of mission in his region, as well as his military counterparts.On the USAID side, according to Director Andrew Natsios:
As a result of his discussions, he has opted to stand up Joint Task Force 536. The commander of that joint task force will be Lieutenant General "Rusty" Blackman, the commanding general of the Third Marine Expeditionary Force, located on Okinawa.
That headquarters is already in the process of deploying a forward command element, has moved to Utapao, Thailand. The Thais have been gracious enough to offer us use of Utapao throughout the disaster relief effort. That forward command element will be commanded by Brigadier General Ken Gluck, who is General Blackman's deputy up in Okinawa.
Three disaster relief assessment teams are either in place or are moving into place: the first arrived in Thailand this morning; a second will arrive this afternoon in Sri Lanka; and a third will arrive tomorrow in Indonesia. Their task, of course, will be to make immediate assessment as to the nature and the scope of the impact of the disaster.
We have committed, at this point, six C-130 aircraft for airlift support. They will be operating out of the air base at Utapao. We have committed nine P-3 aircraft, four of which will operate out of Utapao, the other five will operate out of Diego Garcia. As we speak, there are at least two P-3s in the air conducting that initial observation and reconnaissance of some of the damage sites to further the assessment.
The Lincoln Carrier Strike Group was in Hong Kong. It has been diverted now to the Gulf of Thailand. It has aircraft in the air doing a reconnaissance of the Malaka Straits to check for debris before it would transit. If it's clear, and early reports indicate that it might be, the five ships associated with that carrier strike group will take position off the island of Sumatra. It has embarked aboard 12 helicopters, which we find extremely valuable in these types of scenarios, that will be employed dependent upon the results of the assessment team.
The Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group was in Guam. It is foregoing port visits there and in Singapore to move rapidly to the Bay of Bengal. It's estimated to be on station sometime on or before 7 January. It has seven ships associated with the strike group. It carries 25 helicopters, which will be valuable to us, again, in disaster relief. There are four additional Cobras that will also be instrumental, we think, in reconnaissance efforts; 2,100 Marines, 1,400 sailors embarked aboard the Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group and 15th MEU.
The commander has also opted to move five of his pre-positioned ships out of the squadron located in Guam. These five ships have freshwater-producing capability. Each ship can produce 90,000 gallons of fresh water a day, and, of course, that will be extremely valuable as we have a number of requests already for freshwater supply.
There is a sixth ship that has a field hospital embarked aboard that can be phased ashore, again, depending upon the results of the assessment teams and the need.
Just before I stepped over, I discovered or was told that there are two additional ships out of the squadron located at Diego Garcia that Admiral Fargo is also ordering to action. They will embark as soon as possible and get underway, again, for assignment in the affected region. Those two ships also have a 90,000 gallon freshwater-production capability.
We have stood up the Response Management Team, the RMT, which is the AID 24-hour/7-day-a-week disaster response center here in Washington. We did that on Sunday, Sunday morning. We deployed a DART team, a Disaster Assistance Response Team, of technical disaster relief specialists from AID. There are 44 people on the teams; 22 are now in site in the countries. They are doing assessments, working with local officials, nongovernmental organizations, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and local officials.
I think there are going to be some questions later as to whether USAID is the entity best equipped to respond immediately to this sort of thing, but it sounds like Natsios is at least on top of it now. The NSC hasn't exactly bathed itself in glory, either, as is clear from Grossman's comments above. Grossman should have been designated in charge on Sunday. Moving on -- Natsios also noted the delicate situation in Aceh, Indonesia, which has been devastated by the tsunami:
Aceh is in the middle of an insurrection. It's been in a civil war for a long time now. And so, there are areas of Aceh that have not been accessible to anybody, including the national government of the -- Indonesia -- and they only today approved in Indonesia access by the international community to the area.I think we should send retired CENTCOM Commander Anthony Zinni there. He knows the issues (Armitage appointed him as a special negotiator in the Aceh/Indonesia conflict) and has broad experience in urgent relief efforts in Kurdistan, Somalia, and elsewhere. I believe he also worked in some capacity with Grossman in Operation Provide Comfort, which was really the first example of this kind of complicated relief effort, although what's happening now is on another scale altogether.
I think we have the sort of ceasefire in place, according to our friends in Indonesia, that will allow us access. But the deaths in Indonesia are much larger than anybody, including the Indonesian National Government realized, because some of these areas are insecure, or were insecure.
UPDATE: Abu Aardvark notes that Sid Blumenthal is claiming that Grossman has already resigned. Hard to resolve that with him being charged with such a major relief effort, but I guess we'll see if he sticks around. It would be unfortunate if a guy of his integrity and competence were to leave.
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