----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2005 3:51
PM
Subject: [UC] Guest Column: No Relief in
Sight for the Lincoln
ANOTHER ONE TO CHECK OUT TRUE or FALSE
Guest Column: No Relief in Sight for the Lincoln
By 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 the Lincoln'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 to
Disneyland.
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 to Indonesia 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 to Sumatra 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 "stingy" 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."
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 of Phoenix,
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 the USA 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. Send
Feedback responses
to [EMAIL PROTECTED].
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