USS Abraham Lincoln Nuclear Carrier Strike Force

Along with her support ships, the USS Abraham Lincoln is working along the coast of northwest Sumatra providing tsunami disaster relief. Here's an email from a crew member, Master Chief Fire Control Technician David Kirk:

You should see this mess. We are sailing 3 miles off the coast in a field of floating debris. Roofs, trees, dressers, millions of coconuts and so many dead bodies in the water all around us. We creep thru the water as to not stir them up too bad. They are bleached white, bloated, faces have no expressions..... They secured the weather decks to shield the crew from the visual trauma. We retrieve Helicopters every night and head for deeper water and kick up speed to make sure nothing is stuck in our intakes.

In the morning, we go back in and launch the Helicopters and refuel them at regular periods. We have Shore parties of 100 volunteers a day. 1,300 volunteered but they expect to only use 300 and just rotate them around because of the pills and various shots required. Basically, we deployed with double the number of Helicopters just because. Turns out it was a good call. We use 12 Helicopters daily.

They fly the Shore detail to the airport in the morning. The working party unloads the cargo from the relief planes, load that cargo onto the Helo's and they fly the stuff to villages and outer most areas needing help. Work all day and everybody returns at night. The village we are sailing near had 50,000 residents of which only 1,000 are left. All the roads were washed out so our Helo's are the only way in. Dan Rather flew onboard and stayed the night. It's good to have a mission. Adds purpose to being away from home.

All Americans should be rightfully proud of the timely and responsive disaster relief actions of the men and women of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Group. Providing hope in ruination is an American trait and the U.S. military is doing the job. Meanwhile, the UN has scheduled some more meetings to coordinate whatever it is it coordinates. Chief Kirk's email is courtesy of Michelle Malkin who has more to say on the subject. Go visit.