How The Army of the USA is used for Development Work
Posted on August 6th, 2010
By Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D.
The US Army is used for tasks of national development in a manner that is not done in any other country.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This task is assigned to the US Army Corps of Engineers which is utilized both in the USA and also on assignments abroad.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Army of Sri Lanka was used in times of floods when bridges get washed away and the Army comes in and fixes a bailey bridge within a few days. In the Anuradhapura of the Sixties, my friend Dr Randy Guneratne a doctor of the Volunteer Force was enlisted when the Volunteer Force was sent to cut the sugar cane crop at Kantalai. Today, there is a great deal of criticism about the work of the Armed Forces in building up their own cantonments in the North and the East, The Army should build up their dwellings and the other infrastructure and there should be no qualms about it.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In the case of the USA, what is important is that the Army Corps attends to matters of national development on a permanent basis. It is not just casual work after a major flood.
The Mission of the Army Corps of Engineers is ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…- Provide vital public engineering services in peace and war to strengthen our NationsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ security, energise the economy and reduce risks from disasters.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
The Vision was a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-great engineering force of highly disciplined people working with ourƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ partners through disciplined thought and action to deliver innovative and sustainable solutions to the nationsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ engineering challenges.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 34,600 civilian and 650 military personnel, making it the world’s largest public engineering, design and construction management agency. Although generally associated with dams, canals and flood protection in the United States, USACE is involved in a wide range of public works support to the nation and the Department of Defense throughout the world. The Corps of Engineers is the nation’s number one provider of outdoor recreation and provides 24% of the US hydropower capacity.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The US Army Corps is at work in most States of the USA..
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Some details are quoted to indicate the magnitude of the work that has been accomplished.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The 17 mile long Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, was done in 1975
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ On the Columbia River in Oregon, the construction of the McNary Dam meant producing 980 megawatts of power from 14 hydro power turbines.
On the Snake River, the Ice Harbour Lock and Dam, Lower Monumental Lock and Dam, the Little Goose Lock and Dam and the Lower Granite Lock and Dam have 24 hydro turbines that produce 3,33 megawatts of power.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Incidentally on my travels in 2004 I saw for myself the stupendous structures done by the Army Corps. It was a marvel; of engineering for the salmon fish to swim upstream in a separate graded channel while simultaneously the water got dammed to provide power.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In Louisiana the levees that keep the land away from the sea were also built by the Army Corps. The land is below sea level. In my 2010 travels in the Missisipi I have myself seen these levees- we call them tank bunds in Sri Lanka. The US Army Corps not only built these levees but also maintain them.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In short it seems that there is not a single river where the US Army Corps has not had a hand in development. In the Snake River the Army Corps maintains navigation by dredging.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Army Corps owns and maintains 609 dams, 257 navigation locks and 12,000 miles of navigation channels.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Today Sri Lanka is at the cross roads. The Government of Sri Lanka under the leadership of President Rajapaksa and his brother the Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya has in the short space of three years defeated the LTTE, the major terrorist organization in the world. This is an achievement without any par in the annals of modern world history. All earlier Presidents chickened out in their attempt to annihilate the LTTE and some, like Chandrika Kumaranatunge, seem to have become the hirelings of the LTTE and the international community in giving the terrorist LTTE full powers in handling Tsunami aid.in the ISGA. This ISGA like the Ceasefire Agreement of Ranil Wickremasinghe provided legitimacy for the LTTE rule and conferred to the LTTE more powers than to the sovereign government. Naturally the International Community has accorded her favours that enable her to roam the continents and do their bidding even today.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Now in the aftermath of victory, the country faces the task of development, and the Sri Lankan Army has to play a major role in the development of the country.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In the past we have had major Government Departments that attended to development tasks in the country. As a member of the Administrative Services I kept company with many of my colleagues who as Land Development Officers handled the total development of the colonies. All the stores, roads and other buildings were done by them overnight, working at least 14 hours a day and a full 365 days a year..
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Over to you Mr Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, our great Defence Secretary- the personage who directed the War and won it for us. Development in Sri Lanka awaits your hand today. The Private Sector works on the profit motive and they will invest only on short term ventures like Supermarkets where profits can be found within a six month cycle. Sri Lanka left to the Private Sector will never develop. The Government has to play a major role in handling long term development tasks and give guidance to the Private Sector.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It could be the building of tanks- the reservoirs that breathe life to our farmers of the Dry Zone. It could be the building of a few hundred wind turbines that will sort out our energy requirements for good. I have written again and again that wind power is the one method of solving our power requirements- Spain has been building wind turbines on a massive scale and today even sell power to France- all achieved within the past five years. It could be industrial work to provide employment to our youths. We provide the best rubber in the world, but yet import our tyres. What a sad state!
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ To Mr Gotabhaya Rajapaksa- We appreciate your role in liberating our country and await to see the Army tackling our development tasks.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Garvin Karunaratne, former Government Agent, Matara District, 5 th August 2010, Fremont, USA
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ References:The Energy Problem of Sri Lanka , pages 343-354 in How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternative Programmes of Development (Godages)
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Wind and Solar Power for Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ in Lanka Web, September 2, 2009
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”The Wind Turbines of Spain, France & PortugalƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ in Lanka Web, August 25, 2009
August 6th, 2010 at 10:03 pm
Out of many tasks carried out abroad the entire King Khalid Military City, Hafr Al Batin, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with airport, chilled water plant, etc. and engineering & maintenance facilities are also done by the Corps of Engineers of the USA Army.
August 8th, 2010 at 4:44 am
This is another way of devlopement work by US army. Following article is from www. spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/VNchemicals
As the United States is the most advanced industrial nation in world it was able to make full use of the latest developments in technology in its war against North Vietnam. B-52 bombers, that could fly at heights that prevented them being seen or heard, dropped 8 million tons of bombs on Vietnam between 1965 and 1973. This was over three times the amount of bombs dropped throughout the whole of the Second World War and worked out at approximately 300 tons for every man, woman and child living in Vietnam.
As well as explosive bombs the United States Air Force dropped a considerable number of incendiary devices. The most infamous of these was napalm, a mixture of petrol and a chemical thickner which produces a tough sticky gel that attaches itself to the skin. The igniting agent, white phosphorus, continues burning for a considerable amount of time. A reported three quarters of all napalm victims in Vietnam were burned through to the muscle and bone (fifth degree burns). The pain caused by the burning is so traumatic that it often causes death.
The US also made considerable use of anti-personnel bombs. The pineapple bomb was made up of 250 metal pellets inside a small canister. Gloria Emerson, a reporter in Vietnam, witnessed their use: “An American plane could drop a thousand pineapples over an area the size of four football fields. In a single air strike two hundred and fifty thousand pellets were spewed in a horizontal pattern over the land below, hitting everything on the ground.”
The United States also experimented with the use of plastic rather than metal needles and pellets in their antipersonnel bombs. The advantage of plastic was they could not be identified by X-Ray machines. Dropped on highly populated areas, antipersonnel bombs could severely disrupt the functioning of North Vietnam. It has been claimed that the major objective of the US bombing raids on North Vietnam was not to kill its 17 million population but to maim them. As was pointed out at the time, serious injury is more disruptive than death as people have to be employed to look after the injured where they only have to bury the dead.
One of the major problems of the US forces was the detection of the National Liberation Front hiding in the forests of Vietnam. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy approved Operation Ranch Hand. This involved the spraying of chemicals from the air in an attempt to destroy the National Liberation Front hiding places. In 1969 alone, Operation Ranch Hand destroyed 1,034,300 hectares of forest. Agent Orange, the chemical used in this defoliation programme not only destroyed trees but caused chromosomal damage in people.
Chemicals were also sprayed on crops. Between 1962 and 1969, 688,000 agricultural acres were sprayed with a chemical called Agent Blue. The aim of this exercise was to deny food to the NLF. However, research suggests that it was the civilian population who suffered most from the poor rice harvests that followed the spraying.
When a report appeared in the St. Louis Dispatch about the dropping of “poison” on North Vietnam the United States denied the herbicide they were using was a chemical weapon. It was claimed that Agent Orange and Agent Blue were harmless to humans and only had a short-lived impact on the environment.
During the war about 10% of Vietnam was intensively sprayed with 72 million litres of chemicals, of which 66% was Agent Orange. Some of this landed on their own troops and soon after the war ended veterans began complaining about serious health problems. There was also a high incidence of their children being born limbless or with Down’s syndrome and spina bifida. The veterans sued the defoliant manufacturers and this was settled out of court in 1984 by the payment of $180 million.
The TCCD dioxin used in Agent Orange seeped into the soil and water supply, and therefore into the food chain. In this way it passed from mother to foetus in the womb. In Vietnam the dioxide remains in the soil and is now damaging the health of the grandchildren of the war’s victims.
A report published in 2003 claimed that 650,000 people in Vietnam were still suffering from chronic conditions as a result of the chemicals dropped on the country during the war. Since the war the Vietnamese Red Cross has registered an estimated one million people disabled by Agent Orange. It is estimated that 500,000 people in Vietnam have died from the numerous health problems created by these chemical weapons.