Thursday, January 27, 2005
Tsunami and the Navy
No Relief in Sight for the Lincoln
Soldiers for The Truth ^ | January 20, 2005 | "Ed Stanton"
It has been three weeks since my ship, the USS Abraham Lincoln, arrived
off the Sumatran coast to aid the hundreds of thousands of victims of the
Dec. 26 tsunami that ravaged their coastline. I’d like to say that this
has been a rewarding experience for us, but it has not: Instead, it has
been a frustrating and needlessly dangerous exercise made even more
difficult by the Indonesian government and a traveling circus of so-called
aid workers who have invaded our spaces.
What really irritated me was a scene I witnessed in theLincoln’s
wardroom a few days ago. I went in for breakfast as I usually do,
expecting to see the usual crowd of ship’s company officers in khakis
and air wing aviators in flight suits, drinking coffee and exchanging
rumors about when our ongoing humanitarian mission in Sumatra is going to
end.
What I saw instead was a mob of civilians sitting around like they owned
the place. They wore various colored vests with logos on the back
including Save The Children, World Health Organization and the dreaded
baby blue vest of the United Nations. Mixed in with this crowd were a
bunch of reporters, cameramen and Indonesian military officers in
uniform. They all carried cameras, sunglasses and fanny packs like
tourists on their way toDisneyland.
My warship had been transformed into a floating hotel for a bunch of
trifling do-gooders overnight.
As I went through the breakfast line, I overheard one of the U.N.
strap-hangers, a longhaired guy with a beard, make a sarcastic comment to
one of our food servers. He said something along the lines of “Nice
china, really makes me feel special,†in reference to the fact that we
were eating off of paper plates that day. It was all I could do to keep
from jerking him off his feet and choking him, because I knew that the
reason we were eating off paper plates was to save dishwashing water so
that we would have more water to send ashore and save lives. That plus the
fact that he had no business being there in the first place.
My attitude towards these unwanted no-loads grew steadily worse that day
as I learned more from one of our junior officers who was assigned to
escort a group of them. It turns out that they had come toIndonesia to
“assess the damage†from the Dec. 26 tsunami.
Well, they could have turned on any TV in the world and seen that the
damage was total devastation. When they got toSumatra with no plan, no
logistics support and no five-star hotels to stay in, they threw
themselves on the mercy of the U.S. Navy, which, unfortunately, took them
in. I guess our senior brass was hoping for some good PR since this was
about the time that the U.N. was calling the United States “stingyâ€
with our relief donations.
As a result of having to host these people, our severely over-tasked
SH-60 Seahawk helos, which were carrying tons of food and water every day
to the most inaccessible places in and around Banda Aceh, are now used in
great part to ferry these “relief workers†from place to place every
day and bring them back to their guest bedrooms on the Lincoln at night.
Despite their avowed dedication to helping the victims, these relief
workers will not spend the night in-country, and have made us their
guardians by default.
When our wardroom treasurer approached the leader of the relief group and
asked him who was paying the mess bill for all the meals they ate, the
fellow replied, “We aren’t paying, you can try to bill the U.N. if you
want to.â€
In addition to the relief workers, we routinely get tasked with hauling
around reporters and various low-level “VIPs,†which further wastes
valuable helo lift that could be used to carry supplies. We had to
dedicate two helos and a C-2 cargo plane for America-hater Dan Rather and
his entourage of door holders and briefcase carriers from CBS News.
Another camera crew was from MTV. I doubt if we’ll get any good PR from
them, since the cable channel is banned in Muslim countries. We also had
to dedicate a helo and crew to fly around the vice mayor ofPhoenix, Ariz.,
one day. Everyone wants in on the action.
As for the Indonesian officers, while their job is apparently to encourage
our leaving as soon as possible, all they seem to do in the meantime is
smoke cigarettes. They want our money and our help but they don’t want
their population to see that Americans are doing far more for them in two
weeks than their own government has ever done or will ever do for them.
To add a kick in the face to theUSA and the Lincoln, the Indonesian
government announced it would not allow us to use their airspace for
routine training and flight proficiency operations while we are saving the
lives of their people, some of whom are wearing Osama bin Ladin T-shirts
as they grab at our food and water. The ship has to steam out into
international waters to launch and recover jets, which makes our helos
have to fly longer distances and burn more fuel.
What is even worse than trying to help people who totally reject
everything we stand for is that our combat readiness has suffered for it.
An aircraft carrier is an instrument of national policy and the big stick
she carries is her air wing. An air wing has a set of very demanding
skills and they are highly perishable. We train hard every day at sea to
conduct actual air strikes, air defense, maritime surveillance, close air
support and many other missions – not to mention taking off and landing
on a ship at sea.
Our safety regulations state that if a pilot does not get a night carrier
landing every seven days, he has to be re-qualified to land on the ship.
Today we have pilots who have now been over 25 days without a trap due to
being unable to use Indonesian airspace to train. Normally it is when we
are at sea that our readiness is at its very peak. Thanks to the
Indonesian government, we have to waive our own safety rules just to get
our pilots off the deck.
In other words, the longer we stay here helping these people, the more
dangerous it gets for us to operate. We have already lost one helicopter,
which crashed in Banda Aceh while taking sailors ashore to unload
supplies from the C-130s. There were no relief workers on that one.
I’m all for helping the less fortunate, but it is time to give this
mission to somebody other than the U.S. Navy. Our ship was supposed to be
home on Feb. 3 and now we have no idea how long we will be here. American
taxpayers are spending millions per day to keep this ship at sea and
getting no training value out of it. As a result, we will come home in a
lower state of readiness than when we left due to the lack of flying while
supporting the tsunami relief effort.
I hope we get some good PR in the Muslim world out of it. After all, this
is Americans saving the lives of Muslims. I have my doubts.
Ed Stanton is the pen name of a career U.S.Navy officer currently serving
with the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group.
|
Soldiers for The Truth ^ | January 20, 2005 | "Ed Stanton"
It has been three weeks since my ship, the USS Abraham Lincoln, arrived
off the Sumatran coast to aid the hundreds of thousands of victims of the
Dec. 26 tsunami that ravaged their coastline. I’d like to say that this
has been a rewarding experience for us, but it has not: Instead, it has
been a frustrating and needlessly dangerous exercise made even more
difficult by the Indonesian government and a traveling circus of so-called
aid workers who have invaded our spaces.
What really irritated me was a scene I witnessed in theLincoln’s
wardroom a few days ago. I went in for breakfast as I usually do,
expecting to see the usual crowd of ship’s company officers in khakis
and air wing aviators in flight suits, drinking coffee and exchanging
rumors about when our ongoing humanitarian mission in Sumatra is going to
end.
What I saw instead was a mob of civilians sitting around like they owned
the place. They wore various colored vests with logos on the back
including Save The Children, World Health Organization and the dreaded
baby blue vest of the United Nations. Mixed in with this crowd were a
bunch of reporters, cameramen and Indonesian military officers in
uniform. They all carried cameras, sunglasses and fanny packs like
tourists on their way toDisneyland.
My warship had been transformed into a floating hotel for a bunch of
trifling do-gooders overnight.
As I went through the breakfast line, I overheard one of the U.N.
strap-hangers, a longhaired guy with a beard, make a sarcastic comment to
one of our food servers. He said something along the lines of “Nice
china, really makes me feel special,†in reference to the fact that we
were eating off of paper plates that day. It was all I could do to keep
from jerking him off his feet and choking him, because I knew that the
reason we were eating off paper plates was to save dishwashing water so
that we would have more water to send ashore and save lives. That plus the
fact that he had no business being there in the first place.
My attitude towards these unwanted no-loads grew steadily worse that day
as I learned more from one of our junior officers who was assigned to
escort a group of them. It turns out that they had come toIndonesia to
“assess the damage†from the Dec. 26 tsunami.
Well, they could have turned on any TV in the world and seen that the
damage was total devastation. When they got toSumatra with no plan, no
logistics support and no five-star hotels to stay in, they threw
themselves on the mercy of the U.S. Navy, which, unfortunately, took them
in. I guess our senior brass was hoping for some good PR since this was
about the time that the U.N. was calling the United States “stingyâ€
with our relief donations.
As a result of having to host these people, our severely over-tasked
SH-60 Seahawk helos, which were carrying tons of food and water every day
to the most inaccessible places in and around Banda Aceh, are now used in
great part to ferry these “relief workers†from place to place every
day and bring them back to their guest bedrooms on the Lincoln at night.
Despite their avowed dedication to helping the victims, these relief
workers will not spend the night in-country, and have made us their
guardians by default.
When our wardroom treasurer approached the leader of the relief group and
asked him who was paying the mess bill for all the meals they ate, the
fellow replied, “We aren’t paying, you can try to bill the U.N. if you
want to.â€
In addition to the relief workers, we routinely get tasked with hauling
around reporters and various low-level “VIPs,†which further wastes
valuable helo lift that could be used to carry supplies. We had to
dedicate two helos and a C-2 cargo plane for America-hater Dan Rather and
his entourage of door holders and briefcase carriers from CBS News.
Another camera crew was from MTV. I doubt if we’ll get any good PR from
them, since the cable channel is banned in Muslim countries. We also had
to dedicate a helo and crew to fly around the vice mayor ofPhoenix, Ariz.,
one day. Everyone wants in on the action.
As for the Indonesian officers, while their job is apparently to encourage
our leaving as soon as possible, all they seem to do in the meantime is
smoke cigarettes. They want our money and our help but they don’t want
their population to see that Americans are doing far more for them in two
weeks than their own government has ever done or will ever do for them.
To add a kick in the face to theUSA and the Lincoln, the Indonesian
government announced it would not allow us to use their airspace for
routine training and flight proficiency operations while we are saving the
lives of their people, some of whom are wearing Osama bin Ladin T-shirts
as they grab at our food and water. The ship has to steam out into
international waters to launch and recover jets, which makes our helos
have to fly longer distances and burn more fuel.
What is even worse than trying to help people who totally reject
everything we stand for is that our combat readiness has suffered for it.
An aircraft carrier is an instrument of national policy and the big stick
she carries is her air wing. An air wing has a set of very demanding
skills and they are highly perishable. We train hard every day at sea to
conduct actual air strikes, air defense, maritime surveillance, close air
support and many other missions – not to mention taking off and landing
on a ship at sea.
Our safety regulations state that if a pilot does not get a night carrier
landing every seven days, he has to be re-qualified to land on the ship.
Today we have pilots who have now been over 25 days without a trap due to
being unable to use Indonesian airspace to train. Normally it is when we
are at sea that our readiness is at its very peak. Thanks to the
Indonesian government, we have to waive our own safety rules just to get
our pilots off the deck.
In other words, the longer we stay here helping these people, the more
dangerous it gets for us to operate. We have already lost one helicopter,
which crashed in Banda Aceh while taking sailors ashore to unload
supplies from the C-130s. There were no relief workers on that one.
I’m all for helping the less fortunate, but it is time to give this
mission to somebody other than the U.S. Navy. Our ship was supposed to be
home on Feb. 3 and now we have no idea how long we will be here. American
taxpayers are spending millions per day to keep this ship at sea and
getting no training value out of it. As a result, we will come home in a
lower state of readiness than when we left due to the lack of flying while
supporting the tsunami relief effort.
I hope we get some good PR in the Muslim world out of it. After all, this
is Americans saving the lives of Muslims. I have my doubts.
Ed Stanton is the pen name of a career U.S.Navy officer currently serving
with the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group.
# posted by Joe Florida @ 1:13 PM 
