POV from USS Lincoln

Paco · Posted: 01/27/05 - 10:16 Post subject:

========================================================================
=
====================

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.

POV from USS Lincoln

LIFEFORM SOCIAL COMMUNITY NETWORK