Get out of the way>
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 6:33 PM
Subject: Unhappy crewman
We need to have our heads examined
> Subject: Unhappy crewman
> Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 19:45:48 -0500
>
>
> From: USS Lincoln
> 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 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.
>
> Im 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
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