The Department of Defense is supporting the FEMA-led response to the wildfires in Hawaii. Alongside other interagency partners – including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Forest Service, and the Small Business Administration – and state and local partners, the Pentagon is facilitating the movement of resources and personnel to support ongoing response efforts.
The joint task force responding to the devastating Maui wildfires is bringing the full weight of the Defense Department to the interagency effort, its deputy commander said.
Joint Task Force 5-0 has about 572 personnel assigned and operating in Hawaii. The task force’s mission is to support and augment the efforts of county, state and federal authorities in Hawaii to ensure the people of Maui receive necessary aid and assistance.
During a recent briefing, Army Col. David Fielder, who serves as the Joint Task Force 5-0 Title 10 deputy dual-status commander, said the military response there has been as quick as what’s been called for.
Led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, nearly 700 Defense Department personnel and 140 Coast Guardsmen are part of the coordinated response, as military members work alongside interagency partners and state and local officials.
But beyond personnel currently on the ground, Fielder said the task force brings with it the capability to tap into and quickly field the full spectrum of military capabilities as the situation evolves.
“It may seem slow from the outside,” he said. “But … it’s been going very quickly, as needed, as requested by the local and state [officials], who are ultimately in charge of the entire operation.”
On the ground in Hawaii, Fielder said, there are National Guard, Reserve and active duty personnel who make up the task force. Also included in the task force are Army civilian personnel from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
“We have one in the forensic lab, who is helping out, and we’ve gotten multiple on the scene down there as they’re doing the search for remains and they help with that every day,” he said.
Also, Fielder said, about 50 or more members of the U.S. Coast Guard are involved as well as more than 40 civilians from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
A team of Navy divers is also getting started in Maui, and they will help with salvage operations as well as looking for remains.
“They were requested [by] the Maui Fire Department, they’ve linked up with them,” Fielder said. “They work with the fire department and they work with the Coast Guard, and they provide an expeditionary and deployable diving and salvage operation for the harbor here and the waterway.”
The divers will, in part, participate in mapping out where boats have sunk and also look for remains inside the harbor.
The task force is led by Army Brig. Gen. Stephen F. Logan, commander of the Hawaii Army National Guard. It was activated on Aug. 11 and reached full operational capacity five days later.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III designated Logan as the dual status commander of Joint Task Force 5-0 under U.S. Indo-Pacific Command on Aug. 12.
Fielder said the task force has, in some cases, moved faster than what the bureaucracy would typically allow.
“We haven’t been waiting for all of the paperwork to go — as long as it’s been a request that [we] could fulfill, we started,” he said. “We just received Navy divers. Within 24 hours of that request, they were on the ground.”
National Guard and Reserve military personnel typically serve in the areas where they grew up. For many in the Hawaii National Guard, Hawaii is home.
“At the end of the day, these are our neighbors and our families that have that have been affected by this and we’re proud to be part of the response,” he said.
The Department of Defense is executing eight approved mission assignments to support FEMA. These eight assignments include:
- Operation of a Defense Coordinating Element office including liaison officers
- Inter-island air/sea transportation for the movement of cargo, personnel, supplies and equipment
- Use of Schofield Barracks to support facilities for billeting, life support and hygiene facilities for federal emergency responders
- Strategic transportation of personnel and/or cargo
- Standing by for aerial fire suppression
- Use of U.S. Army Reserve Center – Wailuku and support as a FEMA Incident Support Base and a Federal Staging Area for FEMA
- Fuel distribution operations in support of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers generator operations
- Mortuary Affairs support