RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — A new computational model could be used to expedite military operations aimed at evacuating civilians during disaster response or humanitarian relief.

Researchers at North Carolina State University, with funding from the U.S. Army, designed a new model to help planners and logisticians determine what needs to be where and at what time in order to complete an evacuation as quickly as possible. This includes where vehicles need to be when, and routing alternatives as well as supply requirements by location over time for food, water and shelter.

“What sets this tool apart from other models is that it is designed for use in both planning and during operations,” said Brandon McConnell, corresponding author of a paper on the new model and a research assistant professor in NC State’s Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. “In terms of specificity, we’re talking about where a given truck will be at any point in time during an operation.”

The research, published in the Journal of Defense Analytics and Logistics, focuses on noncombatant evacuation operations in the Republic of Korea; however, it could be used in a wide variety of scenarios.

“The tool will need fine-tuning before it can be implemented — it would benefit from a user-friendly interface, for one thing — but it highlights the potential that operational models have for helping the military achieve its objectives both in or out of wartime,” said Dr. Joseph Myers, mathematical sciences division chief at the Army Research Office, an element of U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory.

The Army Research Office funded this research through a short-term innovation research grant that explores proof-of-concept ideas in a nine-month period.

The authors said this research will provide military logistics planners with capabilities that are currently lacking in prevalent logistics planning tools. The project lays the mathematical and operations research foundation for the development of a network-based model that captures routing alternatives and characterizes the solutions to conduct capacity planning and resiliency analysis in near-real time.

“There is a tremendous amount of complexity associated with the Army’s South Korea noncombatant evacuation mission, and that presents a great opportunity for investigation and improvement,” said U.S. Army Capt. John Kearby, first author of the paper and a former NC State graduate student. “The goal of this research was, and is, to encourage the development of better and more robust evacuation plans.”

Kearby is currently a U.S. Military Academy instructor, but previously served in Korea as an engineer company commander.

“The existing simulation models are both sophisticated and detailed — they have been valuable tools for helping us study operations like these,” McConnell said. “However, they’re not designed to respond to rapidly changing scenarios. The new model can operate in near-real time, making it operationally relevant. After all, even the best plans need at least minor modifications during execution.”

By U.S. Army CCDC Army Research Laboratory Public Affairs

DUKE FIELD, Fla. — The air in the desert is dry, hot, and full of sand. Most Airmen do not speak the language of the locals and are working hard to learn their culture. The work is fast and the days are long the intense Qatar sun. The thirst for relief isn’t just literal, it’s spiritual and the chaplains are on a mission provide deployed Airmen something cold to drink.

 “The role faith played in building resilience in a deployed environment was very important,” said Chap. (Lt. Col.) Barry Dickson, 919th Special Operations Wing. “I would think it’s important everywhere but especially in the Middle East because people are separated from their families. They’re separated from the normal routine of their lives back home. Their living conditions are less than ideal. Their food is less than ideal. They can’t just buy what they want.”

Some Airmen would watch Netflix or go to the gym to recharge in this environment, but many of them wanted a strong spiritual life, said Dickson.

He knows first hand the challenges of being deployed to an austere location. While on  a six month deployment to the Middle East that began in July 2019, he organized chapel operations and provided counsel to dozens of Airmen. People of faith wanted some semblance of home in a place that’s very different from the United States. The ministry overseas is there to provide that resource to them.

“Depending on the deployment site, the ministry can be very similar to what we do here,” said Master Sgt. Mike Adamson, superintendent of chapel operations for the 919th SOW. “It could be a mixture of administrative duties, counseling and crisis intervention, and unit visitation.”

Adamson doesn’t doubt that Dickson did an outstanding job as a chaplain overseas. His gentle and quiet demeanor makes him approachable when it comes to counseling situations, and his strong faith ensured he was fit regardless of the environment.

“I was the admin guy over there,” said Dickson. “My job was to figure out who’s going to provide the support that was needed. I had to develop a schedule often times when we had multiple prayer requests and events that needed a chaplain to be in attendance.”

He gained equivalent experience as an Active Duty chaplain on a larger base, said Dickson.

“There’s lots of people coming in and out, you have all kinds of programs such as children’s services, and you have limited time and resources to spread out,” he said.

He would often have to make sure his own people were okay while dealing with the high demand for chaplain support throughout the deployed location. For example, he occasionally had to have a junior chaplain fill in for a more seasoned one who had responded to an incident late at night or in the early morning hours.  

Chaplains in deployed environments take steps to ensure they’re prepared to help others, said Adamson. Taking time each day for prayer, meditation or reflection, reading religious material, and maintaining relationships with people who will support and challenge their spiritual journey allows them to stay resilient enough to support others.

“Spiritual resilience is defined as the ability to sustain an individual’s sense of self and purpose through a set of beliefs, principles, or values,” said Adamson. “It’s about having faith in the future and believing there is meaning or purpose to your existence.”

Everyone in the chapel at [the deployed location] was eager to create new programs and get involved to help others, said Dickson. He was inspired by the group’s motivation throughout the deployment.

“Faith can counterbalance deployed living conditions and separation from family,” said Dickson. “It takes on a heightened importance with people in that environment. We managed a very robust program that required a great deal of oversight for a lot of moving parts and were very successful. Deployments are a marathon and you have to learn to pace yourself. At the end of the day, it’s about helping others and I think we did a really good job of that.”

By Senior Airman Dylan Gentile, 919th Special Operations Wing