Just got this email: Latest RW propoganda piece

Tom Yossarian Joad

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Sat Jan-29-05 05:53 PM
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Just got this email: Latest RW propoganda piece

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 dwfeedback@yahoo.com.

_____

Bill McDermott