Military Review English Edition July-August 2015 | Page 81

OPERATION UNITED ASSISTANCE

effort: C2, engineering support, medical support,
and sustainment.
Command and control. USARAF organized its
C2 into three cells: a forward-stationed command
cell, a joint operations center split between Liberia and
Vicenza, and USARAF’s main command post in Vicenza.
The JFC commander established his forward office
in the U.S. embassy in Monrovia, Liberia, with the
command sergeant major, political advisor, and a small
support staff. The location and composition of the C2
node was chosen to facilitate communication with the
U.S. embassy and other interagency partners, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and private industry. He focused his efforts on coordination with senior
leaders of partner organizations and worked to develop
relationships with U.S. Ambassador Deborah R. Malac
and with Bill Berger, the USAID Disaster Assistance
Response Team leader. Berger had also established his
operations center in the embassy.
The JFC set up offices in a forward joint operations center approximately thirty minutes from the
embassy, focused on overseeing engineering, medical,
and sustainment efforts on the ground. However, a
sizeable portion of personnel on the joint manning
document did not push forward to Liberia due to
concerns over sustainment capacity in Monrovia.5
As such, a large portion of C2 and planning capacity
remained with the Joint Operations Center–Rear at
Caserma Del Din in Vicenza. External to OUA, the
USARAF main command post provided reach-back
support as needed and continued its steady-state mission overseeing U.S. Army operations for the entire
African continent.
This integrated, distributed C2 structure ensured
maximum forces forward while retaining flexibility and
depth to adapt to the changing conditions in Liberia.
Through this structure, USARAF supported the other
three lines of effort: engineering support, medical support, and sustainment.
Engineering support. The engineering effort
focused on three components: building a twenty-five
bed hospital to treat international aid workers, constructing twelve ETUs, and providing sustainment for
the JFC.
The first effort was a twenty-five bed hospital,
known as the Monrovia Medical Unit. The construction of this hospital was a critical element of the U.S.
MILITARY REVIEW  July-August 2015

plan, providing reliable health care for international
health workers in Liberian treatment facilities. Staffed
by uniformed officers from the U.S. Public Health
Service, the Monrovia Medical Unit ensured that
international he alth-care workers would have access
to reliable and effective health care if they contracted
the Ebola virus.
The second effort was the construction of twelve
ETUs, built in coordination with several NGOs. The
ETUs were temporary facilities that would receive,
triage, and treat suspected Ebola treatment patients.
USAID prioritized its construction based on the
spread of the virus and rates of contraction. USAID’s
strategy was to attack the virus where its concentrations were strongest.6
The third engineering effort directly supported
the JFC by setting conditions for sustainment. This
effort focused on the important task of planning and
constructing lodging for JFC service members. It also
involved identifying suitable locations to establish
sustainment areas and obtaining the real estate agreements to allow construction.
These efforts leveraged interorganizational coordination through established ASCC relationships.
Contracting played a major part in all the efforts,
particularly with horizontal construction (e.g., roads
and airfields). Navy Seabees allocated to Combined
Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa arrived in Liberia on
23 September. The Armed Forces of Liberia supported
ETU construction in conjunction with U.S. mentors
from Operation Onward Liberty, an ongoing program
to improve the Liberian military’s professionalism
and capability. Liberian participation on the engineer
teams demonstrated the Liberian people’s resilience
and strength as they worked with us to overcome the
challenge of Ebola.
Medical support. The medical effort focused on
two key components: JFC health protection and support to international response elements.
Health protection began with educating personnel
on the science behind Ebola and its transmission—essential in countering the “fearbola” that was rampant in
the press.7 The greatest threats to the joint force were,
in fact, malaria and motor vehicle accidents. Malaria
education and prophylaxis were essential in preventing
malarial disease. Given the very real threat of trauma from motor vehicle accidents, the JFC leveraged
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