Working with the Military

60 Years of USAID and DOD Cooperation

U.S. Marines and Nepalese soldiers unload boxes of tarps off of a UH-1Y Huey at Orang, Nepal, during Operation Sahayogi Haat, in May 2015. The Nepalese Government requested assistance from USAID after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck their country April 25. In response, the U.S. military sent service members as part of Joint Task Force 505 at the direction of USAID. / Cpl. Isaac Ibarra, U.S. Marine Corps

Partners since the 1960s, USAID and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) work together in promoting U.S. national security and responding to crises worldwide. Together, we have responded to natural disasters and humanitarian crises, helped curb global pandemics, and addressed the root causes of instability and conflict around the world. Since 1988 alone, DOD has supported 137 USAID-led disaster responses, including the earthquake in Nepal in 2015 and the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.

We often share the same spaces in developing nations. And by leveraging both USAID’s leadership and DOD’s unique capabilities, we advance a safer and more prosperous world.

The United States must use its diplomatic, economic, and military tools simultaneously when assisting aspiring partners.

— National Security Strategy, December 2017

Learn more about some of our partnerships throughout the past six decades.

USAID helped in vaccination efforts in many countries in its first decade. For more about our work with vaccines throughout our 60 years, click here. / USAID

1960s — Health Partnership

For USAID, immunization programs are essential to our global health work, and around the world our DOD partners have been a critical part of our work to administer life-saving vaccines and protect people most vulnerable to disease.

In the 1960s, for example, USAID and interagency partners, including the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the Naval Medical Research Center, initiated a Malaria Vaccine Development Program with the goal of accelerating the development of effective, durable, and affordable vaccines for use in endemic areas.

Clockwise from top: The 1976 earthquake in Guatemala carved a path of devastation. Survivors of the earthquake view the remains of their traditional adobe dwellings. The sling method of carrying relief supplies proved very efficient at this time because there was no complicated unloading procedure. A victim of the disaster being examined by a U.S. Army doctor at an Army Field Hospital. / USAID

1970s — Earthquake Response

On Feb. 4, 1976, an earthquake hit Guatemala — affecting nearly two-thirds of the population. It was one of the worst natural disasters to ever strike Central America. The United States response to the emergency was immediate and massive. USAID and DOD worked together to set up field hospitals, transport stockpiles of USAID emergency supplies, clear debris, and help with emergency operations in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

Left to right: Steve Rothe (USACE Project Manager, retired), Dick Gorton (USACE Chief, Environmental Analysis Section, retired), and Rick Miner (USACE Economist/Community Planner, retired) traveled to Swaziland in 1980 in support of USAID’s work there. An article gives more details about their work (with USAID highlighted). / USAID

1980s — Technical Skills

For decades, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has been an important USAID partner for technical skills training and innovative engineering solutions. In 1980, a USACE team was critical to USAID’s success in responding to Swaziland’s (now referred to as Eswatini) request for assistance building a water resources plan. Through USACE-USAID cooperation, potential irrigation plans were identified to help resolve local water problems.

Clockwise from top: A member of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion Seven carries prefabricated framework to build housing for Hurricane Mitch relief workers in Honduras. A C-130 Hercules aircraft from the 169th Operations Support Flight (OSF) is loaded with pallets containing water purification units by personnel from the 437th Aerial Port Squadron at Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina. The 169th OSF delivered much needed water purification units, food, and medical supplies to assist local civilians affected from the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch. Shelter construction after Mitch. Supplies arriving to meet urgent needs. / Global Communities; Sgt. James Hodgman, 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

1990s — Hurricane Disaster Assistance

After Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America in 1998, USAID and DOD moved quickly to help provide food, water, medical and relief supplies; to repair water systems, roads, and bridges; and to provide medical assistance. During the emergency phase, the partnership reconstructed over 4,600 wells and 4,750 latrines, and repaired water systems, benefiting over 10,000 people.

Clockwise from top: U.S. Army Lt. Col David Sigmund greets a young boy after passing out soccer balls to local children during exercise Flintlock 2007 in Bamako, Mali, Sept. 4, 2007. The exercise, which is meant to foster relationships of peace, security and cooperation among the Trans-Sahara nations, is part of the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership, a multi-agency effort of the U.S. State Department, USAID and the U.S. Defense Department. A training exercise. Peace Through Development is a USAID project that operated in Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger and aimed to counter violent extremism in the Sahel. A member of a USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team, or DART, waits for a flight on a military plane in Maputo, Mozambique. / Tech. Sgt. Roy Santana, U.S. Air Force; Tech. Sgt. Chris Hibben, U.S. Air Force

2000s — Counterterrorism Partnership

In 2005, the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership was established to work in collaboration with host nations to eliminate terrorist safe havens in North and West Africa. Through the partnership, USAID engaged communities to address underlying drivers of extremism while DOD conducted counterterrorism training and military exercises to inhibit the spread of extremist ideologies.

Clockwise from top: The fight against Ebola required the expertise of both USAID and the U.S. military in West Africa. In November 2014, the United States completed construction on its second Ebola treatment unit in Liberia, built by U.S. Army engineers in coordination with the Armed Forces of Liberia. The International Organization for Migration, a USAID partner, staffed the treatment unit to treat Ebola patients. The U.S. military worked alongside USAID, as well as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Public Health Service, to help quell the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. / Morgana Wingard for USAID; Carol Han, USAID

2010s — Containing the Ebola Virus

A new kind of humanitarian and health operation took place in 2014 — a mission to fight against the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa. Working in support of USAID’s Ebola response, DOD deployed 2,500 military personnel to build Ebola treatment units in Liberia, train thousands of healthcare workers, and support logistics operations to transport critically needed medicine, laboratory equipment, and medical supplies to health facilities.

“It is very important for us to make sure that we are treating [the Ebola outbreak] the same way that we would treat any other significant national security threat, and that’s why we’ve got an all-hands-on-deck approach — from DOD to public health to our development assistance… .”

— President Obama on the U.S. response to Ebola

Clockwise from top: USAID/India Health Office Director Sangita Patel (center) stands with the Air Mobility Command 433 AW team welcoming the fifth emergency COVID-19 relief shipment from the United States, which included more than 500 oxygen concentrators and 100,000 N95 masks. The C-5M landed in New Delhi on May 4. Supplies donated to India are unloaded from a U.S. Air Force plane in New Delhi. Ambassador to the United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu oversee the sendoff of the third U.S. plane of supplies from the United States to India. The U.S. Government, through USAID, donated medical supplies to assist in the ongoing fight against COVID-19. Another view of the supplies arriving in New Delhi. / Martha VanLieshout for USAID; Madison Poe, USAID

2020s — COVID-19 Surge Response

In 2020, USAID and DOD faced, and are still facing, one of the greatest global health challenges in modern history — the COVID-19 pandemic. When COVID-19 cases surged in India during the Spring of 2021, USAID, with DOD air and logistics support, rapidly mobilized assistance to save lives, stop the spread of COVID-19, and respond to the urgent health needs of the Indian people.

U.S. service members assigned to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa unload humanitarian aid off of a truck with the help of USAID staffers and local aid workers in Maputo, Mozambique, in April 2019. The effort was in support of Cyclone Idai relief efforts by USAID’s Disaster Assistance Response Team. / Tech. Sgt. Thomas Grimes, U.S. Air Force

About the Author

Madison Poe is a Communications Program Assistant for USAID’s Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs.