Following Desert Storm, the Kurdish Population of Iraq attempted to flee Saddam Hussein in fear he would retaliate against them.
Army Reserve Soldiers remained in theater to support Operation Provide Comfort to restore services and facilities in Kuwait and to provide humanitarian relief to refugees in northern Iraq and Turkey.
Today’s Defense Support of Civil Authorities
The Army Reserve is expanding its ability to support the homeland through Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA). Army Reserve Civilian-enhanced military skills and technical capabilities are present in more than 1,100 communities across the Nation and well positioned to provide critical and complementary response capabilities to support civil authorities.
The Army Reserve’s ability to respond to disasters was put to the test in 2010 in the aftermath of Haiti’s devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake.
The 377th Theater Sustainment Command, headquartered in Belle Chasse, La., deployed to manage the logistics tied to the U.S. military’s humanitarian response. When Superstorm Sandy swept across the northeastern seaboard, Army Reserve Soldiers were among the emergency personnel who responded in a first-time leveraging of Army Reserve capabilities for DSCA.
Units arrived with industrial-sized water pumps and water purification specialists to provide clean, fresh water to local residents. Soldiers established a fuel-supply point to make sure emergency vehicles could continue their relief missions and set up shower and food trailers.
Pictured top: Kurdish refugees help U.S. military personnel dislodge a light vehicle from a rut. Middle: Tents cover the mountainside in the Kurdish refugee camp of Yekmel. Refugees are transported from Yekmelto, a newly established camp at Zakhu during Operation Provide Comfort, an allied effort to aid the refugees who fled the forces of Saddam Hussein in northern Iraq. Bottom: Soldiers from the 401st Quartermaster Detachment, 316th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), carry a suction hose and a basket strainer to the Long Beach Adult Learning Center in Long Beach, N.Y., to perform pumping operations in a flooded basement, a result of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.