A MESSAGE FOR THE CORPS

JA Perspective: Deployment to Haiti

Little did I know when I landed in the darkness of the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince at 0400 on 14 January 2010 that I would soon engage in some of the most satisfying work of my career. I was attached as the Staff Judge Advocate to the 621st Contingency Response Wing (CRW). Our primary mission was to set up air field operations to receive desperately needed relief supplies.

With six hours notice to leave my home station at 18 AF (Scott AFB) so I could link up with the 621 CRW at McGuire AFB, I made last minute adjustments to my pre-packed bags, and said hurried good-byes. Overall, I felt prepared because I had taken the possibility of such a deployment seriously, and the preceding summer I took part in an earthquake response training scenario rained with the 615 CRW at Travis AFB.

We departed McGuire AFB in six chalks of C-17 Globemasters and arrived in Haiti within thirty five hours of the earthquake. In the dead silence of the early morning, we began the work of setting up camp.

When operations began, I watched a well orchestrated ballet of aircraft coming with supplies and leaving with evacuees. I knew I would be working legal issues involving rules of engagement, contracting for all manner of basic necessities, and claims, but I wondered what unique issues I'd encounter in this operation. I had no idea that I would engage in the most rewarding work of my Air Force career- helping to get orphans out of the country and into the arms of their adoptive parents.

Beginning with the first group of five adoptees leaving Haiti-and leaning on my reach back resources-I started to work responding to the legal, political and logistical demands in a dynamic environment, all the while waiting for the system to catch up. In the days and weeks it took for some agencies to respond, I found myself working with embassy personnel, who were themselves recovering for the impact of the quake, to coordinate flight schedules and orphans' moves, and to ensure the plan for their airlift was legally sufficient. My work required me to react to fluid and changing U.S. and Haitian policies, to educate my command on the complexities of the airlift, and to respond to media interest. I viewed my primary role as a deployed JAG as being the one responsible for taking the monkeys off the back of my commander, whether legal, political or even logistical, so he could focus on the mission.

Beyond the professional satisfaction of my work in Haiti, there was soul-filling joy in working with the children. On one of our first large orphan moves, I stood inside at the head of a C-17 looking over the evacuees seat-belted to the floor in rows, all present and accounted for. The larger cargo door at the back was open, and I watched a plane taxi in with more supplies. The world stood still for a moment as I held a little boy who was asleep on my shoulder, and I felt peace.


RANDON H. DRAPER, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF
Deputy Staff Judge Advocate
18 AF/JA