marinemom
01-12-05, 06:58 AM
US soldiers relish their new role: lifesavers
By Rafael D. Frankel, Globe Correspondent
January 12, 2005
UTAPAO, Thailand -- Heavy air traffic over the tsunami-ravaged Indonesian city of Banda Aceh had delayed the late-night US military relief flight for hours, so the exhausted American crew of the C-17 Globemaster III, wearing coats and hats to ward off the unseasonable cold at the Thai naval base here, hunkered down in the tightly packed cargo plane for a few welcome hours of sleep.
When, in the predawn darkness and slight fog of Monday morning, the four jet engines of the cargo plane finally fired up for takeoff, the mood onboard was one of excitement. The Air Force crew, pulled from stations in Okinawa, Guam, Washington state, and South Carolina, hollered and cheered as the 425,000-pound aircraft took to the air, packed with over 20,000 pounds of bottled water, 18,000 pounds of rice, fuel, a pickup truck, and floodlights.
''It's a privilege to be able to help people, to be an ambassador for our nation," said First Lieutenant Damon Field, 24, from Pleasanton, Calif., who was the copilot on the mission. ''Hopefully we can let them know we're a generous and compassionate people."
The C-17 crew members are among 14,550 American military personnel assigned to what may be the largest disaster relief effort the world has ever seen. To date, the Pentagon has dispatched 26 ships, 47 planes, and 57 helicopters to disaster areas around the Indian Ocean.
Utapao, once a key US installation during the Vietnam War, is now the central operating base in the multinational relief effort.
The US military is playing a leading role in bringing supplies to Sumatra, the area hardest hit by the 9.0 magnitude quake and following tsunami, which washed away entire communities and killed about 100,000 people on that island alone.
Before the C-17 was ready to make its run to Banda Aceh, ground support staff were busy loading pallets of supplies by forklift and pickup truck into its cargo hold. On board, the loadmasters buckled the gear down with rope nets and carabiners.
Although they viewed their mission as a simple supply drop, many of the dozen crew members were also aware of the political ramifications their relief efforts.
Mindful of the ill will that many foreigners -- especially in Muslim nations like Indonesia -- harbor toward the United States in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion, Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Davis, 25, from Seattle, said he wanted to show the world ''the kind of country we are."
''At the heart of our country is mostly Christianity, but we set aside our religions when it comes to human suffering," he said. ''When it comes to that, we're unbiased because we're all humans."
Once on the ground in Banda Aceh, the crew snapped to work, unloading its life-saving cargo to American forces on the ground there who readied them for helicopter delivery.
Conditions for the international troops assigned to Banda Aceh are far more primitive than those at Utapao, a 90-minute flight to the northeast. The tents they live in on muddied fields adjacent to the runway and the one-room terminal of the Banda Aceh airport recall a Pacific Island camp of World War II.
''The conditions aren't pleasant here, but there are a lot of good countries doing a lot of good things," said Marine Master Sergeant Phillip Pena.
A fellow Marine popped his head in the tent and shouted: ''Grab a stretcher!" Pena dropped the maps of the 82 helicopter supply sorties flown so far and ran out the door.
In a rice paddy about 400 yards from the airport runway, a helicopter was submerged in three feet of water with its rotors sheared and its tail broken in two. Scores of military personnel from various countries descended on crash site, running and slipping their way through the flooded rice paddies in the post-sunrise light.
All ten crew members from the H-60 Seahawk, attached to the USS Abraham Lincoln, survived the crash, some walking away almost unscathed. ''The Aussies did an outstanding job, really fast," said Captain Jeremy Boyd, 33, a pilot of a KC-135R refueling craft who was one of the first on the scene to the crash site. A team of Australian medics scaled a barb-wire fence to get to the downed chopper, he said.
After only two hours on the ground in Aceh, including an hour when crew members were assisting in the helicopter rescue operations, the Globemaster III was back in the air. Exhausted and somewhat stunned, the crew lay down in the empty cargo hold or sat mostly silent in their seats on the return flight to Utapao.
''There's a lot more people out there that need our help," Boyd said.
By Rafael D. Frankel, Globe Correspondent
January 12, 2005
UTAPAO, Thailand -- Heavy air traffic over the tsunami-ravaged Indonesian city of Banda Aceh had delayed the late-night US military relief flight for hours, so the exhausted American crew of the C-17 Globemaster III, wearing coats and hats to ward off the unseasonable cold at the Thai naval base here, hunkered down in the tightly packed cargo plane for a few welcome hours of sleep.
When, in the predawn darkness and slight fog of Monday morning, the four jet engines of the cargo plane finally fired up for takeoff, the mood onboard was one of excitement. The Air Force crew, pulled from stations in Okinawa, Guam, Washington state, and South Carolina, hollered and cheered as the 425,000-pound aircraft took to the air, packed with over 20,000 pounds of bottled water, 18,000 pounds of rice, fuel, a pickup truck, and floodlights.
''It's a privilege to be able to help people, to be an ambassador for our nation," said First Lieutenant Damon Field, 24, from Pleasanton, Calif., who was the copilot on the mission. ''Hopefully we can let them know we're a generous and compassionate people."
The C-17 crew members are among 14,550 American military personnel assigned to what may be the largest disaster relief effort the world has ever seen. To date, the Pentagon has dispatched 26 ships, 47 planes, and 57 helicopters to disaster areas around the Indian Ocean.
Utapao, once a key US installation during the Vietnam War, is now the central operating base in the multinational relief effort.
The US military is playing a leading role in bringing supplies to Sumatra, the area hardest hit by the 9.0 magnitude quake and following tsunami, which washed away entire communities and killed about 100,000 people on that island alone.
Before the C-17 was ready to make its run to Banda Aceh, ground support staff were busy loading pallets of supplies by forklift and pickup truck into its cargo hold. On board, the loadmasters buckled the gear down with rope nets and carabiners.
Although they viewed their mission as a simple supply drop, many of the dozen crew members were also aware of the political ramifications their relief efforts.
Mindful of the ill will that many foreigners -- especially in Muslim nations like Indonesia -- harbor toward the United States in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion, Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Davis, 25, from Seattle, said he wanted to show the world ''the kind of country we are."
''At the heart of our country is mostly Christianity, but we set aside our religions when it comes to human suffering," he said. ''When it comes to that, we're unbiased because we're all humans."
Once on the ground in Banda Aceh, the crew snapped to work, unloading its life-saving cargo to American forces on the ground there who readied them for helicopter delivery.
Conditions for the international troops assigned to Banda Aceh are far more primitive than those at Utapao, a 90-minute flight to the northeast. The tents they live in on muddied fields adjacent to the runway and the one-room terminal of the Banda Aceh airport recall a Pacific Island camp of World War II.
''The conditions aren't pleasant here, but there are a lot of good countries doing a lot of good things," said Marine Master Sergeant Phillip Pena.
A fellow Marine popped his head in the tent and shouted: ''Grab a stretcher!" Pena dropped the maps of the 82 helicopter supply sorties flown so far and ran out the door.
In a rice paddy about 400 yards from the airport runway, a helicopter was submerged in three feet of water with its rotors sheared and its tail broken in two. Scores of military personnel from various countries descended on crash site, running and slipping their way through the flooded rice paddies in the post-sunrise light.
All ten crew members from the H-60 Seahawk, attached to the USS Abraham Lincoln, survived the crash, some walking away almost unscathed. ''The Aussies did an outstanding job, really fast," said Captain Jeremy Boyd, 33, a pilot of a KC-135R refueling craft who was one of the first on the scene to the crash site. A team of Australian medics scaled a barb-wire fence to get to the downed chopper, he said.
After only two hours on the ground in Aceh, including an hour when crew members were assisting in the helicopter rescue operations, the Globemaster III was back in the air. Exhausted and somewhat stunned, the crew lay down in the empty cargo hold or sat mostly silent in their seats on the return flight to Utapao.
''There's a lot more people out there that need our help," Boyd said.