News from USJFCOM:Newsmaker Profile: Col. Eugene V. "Gene" Bonventre

Newsmaker Profile: Col. Eugene V. "Gene" Bonventre

With the intent to raise awareness of USJFCOM's continuing transformation efforts, this is part of a series of profiles, which allow command subject matter experts to highlight command priorities, challenges, and solution paths for the future in their field.
Building on ad hoc successes in the health aspects of stability operations, Air Force Col. (Dr.) Gene Bonventre, an international health specialist at USJFCOM, shares his insights on health as it relates to the Global War on Terrorism.

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By Air Force Staff Sgt. Bryan D. Axtell
USJFCOM Public Affairs

(NORFOLK, Va. - Sept. 27, 2006) -- For a surgeon who could be making hundreds of thousands working in the private sector, this military doctor's seen counterparts around the world who only make $35 a year.

And, because of the challenges he has seen those doctors face, he's decided that those high-paying jobs are not necessarily for him. He'll make a larger difference by working closely with those doctors in the far reaches of the world to bring health care and stability to areas around the world.

He's Air Force Col. Eugene V. "Gene" Bonventre, the chief of the Multinational Health Branch of the Command Surgeon's office (J02M) at U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM)."

Bonventre, who has worked in over 80 different countries during his career, and those like him are breaking ground in a new area focused on fighting terrorism from the grass-roots level.

Navy Rear Adm. Gregory Timberlake, the command surgeon for both NATO Allied Command Transformation and USJFCOM, said that Bonventre's efforts directly support the Global War on Terrorism.

"If you go back to some of the basics of how people and populations develop, a very smart fellow named Maslow came up with this hierarchy of needs," said Timberlake.

Timberlake said that a person, or a population, cannot achieve higher levels of the hierarchy (the ultimate one being that you are self-aware, and that you will have concern for others) until the lower levels are in place.

"At the lowest level are the basic human needs for such things as food, clean water, and health." Timberlake said.

Terrorist origins usually stem from a lack of these basic needs, said Timberlake and Bonventre's efforts key into these basic needs, and the colonel spoke about what he is trying to accomplish at the USJFCOM level concerning stability operations:

Q: You most recently returned from leading a team that taught a course on trauma surgery and disaster management in Pakistan. Why did you go and what did you do?
A: The biggest take-away from the mission to Pakistan is that it's a fulfillment of a promise that Ambassador Ryan Crocker, the American ambassador to Pakistan, made to the Pakistani government in February of this year when we [the U.S.] donated the 212th MASH [Mobile Army Surgical Hospital], and he basically said that we would not merely donate the MASH and then say goodbye, but we would continue our medical security cooperation efforts.

At a subsequent meeting with the Pakistanis in February, at that same time period, we made arrangements with the Pakistani Surgeon General, Lt. Gen. Afzal, to hold courses on topics that the Pakistanis were interested in. And so they asked for courses on trauma surgery and disaster management, and this most recent trip to Pakistan was a course that - an off-the-shelf course [from the Defense Institute for Medical Operations (DIMO)] - that happens to combine both of those things.

And we had representatives from the Kashmir region that were affected by the earthquake in the course as participants, and as presenters.

Q: After you returned you stated in your summation that this mission directly supports the Global War on Terror (GWOT). Why do you feel that is the case?
A: Two reasons: Let me ask you. Do you know what organization sent the first field hospital to respond to the Pakistani earthquake? It was al-Qaida. They sent two field hospitals - this is through an organization called Jamaat Ud Dawa - and so al-Qaida is already winning hearts and minds in some portions of Pakistan. And their training camps are in the area of earthquake.

Well, when we donated the MASH we made a very big impact that the U.S. is also interested in helping the Pakistani people by helping them improve their disaster response capabilities. So that's one way.

The second way is the Pakistanis expressed interest in moving the MASH to where the hunt for Osama bin Laden is going on, and they plan to use the MASH to treat casualties that occur in their portion of counter-terrorism operations there. So there's two ways that it directly supports counter-terrorism.

Q: Missions like the one in Pakistan are only a piece of what you do though. Briefly outline who the people in the International Health Specialist program are.
A: [People] who are trained and experienced in regional languages and cultures, humanitarian assistance, disaster response, and both the U.S. government and the multi-national/interagency process, and civil/military operations.

We're the only people in any of the medical services - Air Force, Navy, everything - trained in those things. That skill set was vital to successful U.S. response to help Pakistan through the earthquake.

As a result of that the CENTCOM Command Surgeon Air Force Col. Doug Robb, asked me to come out with him on a visit to Pakistan to meet with the Pakistani Surgeon General, Lt. Gen. Afzal to discuss the way ahead after the MASH donation and to try to improve Pakistan's capacity to prepare for future disasters.

Q: One of the things that can play a role in stability operations is the level of basic health care available to a population. What are some of the difference between US medicine and that in other nations?
A: It's only the U.S. and Western Europe and a few select other countries where the majority of the people have access to basic medical care, clean water, and sanitation."

Q: How does teaching a course that essentially addresses disasters and humanitarian efforts tie into making a country more stabile, and less susceptible to this kind of thing?
A: I think the most beneficial thing about courses like this disaster management course is it helps the average person in those countries. Because when an earthquake strikes, it's the average person who's hurt. It's the poorer people who can't afford nice housing who are hurt. It's people in remote areas. This is one way for the US military might and power and wealth to help the average person in developing countries.

That really gets at one of the root causes of terrorism, because if you're a young, unemployed Muslim male in country X, and you're poor. You have no hope of getting ahead in the world, and your government isn't supporting you at all. There are terrorist organizations that will support you.

This is what happened in Lebanon with Hizbullah. Hizbullah started as a charity organization. So the terrorist organizations will take care of the population. Hamas does the same thing, but primarily in Palestine We're helping the governments to take care of their populations so that people support their governments not the terrorist organizations.

So to me, that really embodies the Global War on Terrorism. You have to fight it at the root cause level. There's only so far that combat operations get you in counter-terrorism, and this particular mission, and this whole project that I'm working here at Joint Forces Command, goes right to that root cause.

There was a RAND study on this, health as a cause of conflict and instability that made the exact same point. It was a non-medical study, but it made the point that you can't be successful in reconstruction/rehabilitation, stability operations basically, unless you address the basics of the health sector, and basic essential services - water, sanitation and public health.

Q: Is the whole idea to create the national experts in these different regions, or is that just the beginning.
A: Well, this is just the Air Force International Health Specialist program. We've proposed at Joint Forces Command that it become a joint program that not only is this skill set resident in each of the services, but also it's resident jointly, so that it can be used for joint task forces, for when you stand-up a Standing Joint Force Headquarters, etc. Right now, we're not quite there.

Q: Define this skill-set.
A: It comes down to a couple of things:
• Expertise in regional languages and cultures
• How to use your knowledge of culture to improve mission success
• Knowledge of the interagency process
• Civil/military operations, humanitarian relief, and disaster response.

Q: Is it important to be in the medical field to do this kind of work?
A: No, it's not unique to medical. I think in every aspect of the military, every military person who sets foot outside their own office needs to understand cultural differences.

Because there are not only cultural differences in places where we work like Iraq and Afghanistan, there are cultural differences when you go over to a civilian agency, or when you work in a community downtown.

Civilians and military people have different cultures, different personalities, different ways of looking at the world. If the military and the civilian agencies - and the local and the national agencies - are going to work together, they have to understand the cultural differences. And know how to use those differences to improve mission success, not to hinder it.

Q: So if you had to quantify - is the majority of your work in cultural and that kind of work. How much of your medical work is medical?
A: I'd say, at the moment, medical is just the tool that we're using. Because if you're trying to improve, say, civil/military relations - particularly internationally, say with Pakistan - there's always a little bit of distrust of combat people.

For instance if you're working with an non-governmental organization such as Doctors without Borders, Red Cross - an international organization - something like that, it's easier for a medic to relate to a medic in one of those organizations because medicine is a universal language.

We're non-combatants. We're working for the common good. So if you put a Pakistani soldier in a room with an American soldier, they always wonder, you know, 'What is this guy's motive,' and 'What are they thinking,' you know, 'Are they spying on us?' - are there ulterior motives?

You put a Pakistani medic in a room with a U.S. medic, they instantly have a rapport. They know that they're interested in the same thing. Then take it one step further.

Take a U.S. military medic, put him in a room with a Pakistani military medic, and a Pakistani civilian medic - and the civilians and the military don't necessarily get along with each other in Pakistan - but now you have the three medics in the room who all speak the same medical language, even if your first language is Urdu and my first language is English, still the medical terminology is the same.

The ideas, the concept, the professionalism is the same. And because we're all non-combatants and working in a humanitarian profession, there's instant rapport there.

So 80 percent of your job is done for you, just by the fact that you're speaking the same medical language. Using health as a vehicle in stability operations helps us to bridge gaps that need to be bridged if we're going to be successful in counter-terrorism.