Training the Pacific Warriors

The message from the National Military Command Center NMCC flashed on the screen of the U.S. Pacific Command PACOM command duty officer at 0200. The American Embassy had informed the CINC of its original assessment some hours earlier. Yet the message was jolting immediately after a devastating earthquake had struck a small yet vital Pacific nation, guerrillas had attacked its capital. Urgent calls for help ensued. The prime minister warned that his country could no longer safeguard American lives and property. The duty officer rushed the latest information to the CINC and his battle staff who were already assembling. Together they reviewed an assessment from the operational planning team OPT and activated the crisis action team CAT. With details from the NMCC message, OPT recommended activation of joint task force JTF Decisive Response based on I Corps, a PACOM designated and trained JTF headquarters. A 35-member deployable joint task force augmentation cell DJTFAC was told to purple-up the corps staff. The DJTFAC team chief, part of OPT from the outset, made certain DJTFAC received the latest information to begin parallel crisis action planning while waiting to join the JTF staff. By 0800, DJTFAC was on its way to join JTF Decisive Response with a copy of the OPT-drafted warning order. It stayed in radio contact with CINCPAC and the JTF headquarters during the trip, developing courses of action. Within hours, a single service headquarters became a fully-functional JTF headquarters. American citizens at risk as well as an ally on the ropes had brought a rapid, decisive response by the United States through its unified headquarters in the Pacific.