Photo By Marcos Hernandez | KARACHI, Pakistan: A Pakistani heavy equipment operator moves a container of...... read more read more
By Lieutenant Ron Flanders
Expeditionary Strike Group One Public Affairs
KARACHI, Pakistan" The amphibious transport dock USS Cleveland (LPD-7) offloaded 280 tons of emergency earthquake relief supplies here Oct. 27-28 to assist the victims of the devastating earthquake in Kashmir.
Cleveland's cargo included 37 pieces of heavy machinery provided by Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3, which is forward deployed to Bahrain. The construction supplies included light trucks, accessory trailers, light plants and generators. In addition to the heavy equipment, the Cleveland delivered food supplies from the French Navy, and tents, cots and blankets from Egypt.
Cleveland's visit was the third by a U.S. Navy warship delivering Pakistan earthquake relief supplies in less than two weeks. Cleveland's sister ship, the amphibious dock landing ship USS Pearl Harbor (LSD-52), was the first Navy ship to respond to the crisis, offloading supplies Oct. 16 and 24 in Karachi. Mary Witt, the U.S. consul general in Karachi, said the response by the Navy in ferrying supplies from donor nations was rapid and impressive.
"This has truly been outstanding," Witt said. "The Navy came in within a few days after the call, unloaded quickly, organized both the pier security and the transference of goods with the U.S. Army to the Pakistani Army quickly and efficiently. Because of the way the Navy organized this, there has been no pipeline clogging here in Karachi, which would have been tragic given the need for this material up north."
Cleveland, which, along with Pearl Harbor and the amphibious assault ship USS Tarawa (LHA-1), provides a robust heavy transport capability for Expeditionary Strike Group One (ESG-1), was in a perfect position to help, said Capt. Michael Chase, Cleveland's commanding officer.
"We were on our regularly scheduled deployment conducting maritime security operations," Chase said. "We had offloaded the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, and we had a lot of excess capacity on the ships, and this is a mission that fit in very well with what we were doing. We were in Bahrain doing maintenance, and it only took a few hours to load the supplies."
Chase added that his crew was very eager to assist in the humanitarian assistance operation. The crew worked past midnight offloading the supplies in order to help the relief get to the victims faster.
"Helping out is a big deal for us. We have 30 crewmembers from 26 different countries who are not yet American citizens. This is a very international ship. This is a human issue, and a chance for our military to really help people, and it is very satisfying to the crew," Chase said.
"I think we're doing a great thing," said Seaman Raymond Cousins, a Baltimore, Md., native who assisted offloading the supplies. "A lot of people lost their lives and even more can't help themselves. With winter coming, a lot more could lose their lives. So it is a great thing being able to help out."
ESG-1's ships remain on standby to continue to assist the Pakistani government, should the assistance be requested. Rear Adm. Michael A. LeFever, commander of ESG-1, leads the Disaster Assistance Center (DAC) in Islamabad, where U.S. disaster assistance efforts are coordinated.
| Date Taken: | 10.28.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 10.28.2005 13:39 |
| Story ID: | 3508 |
| Location: | KARACHI, PK |
| Web Views: | 139 |
| Downloads: | 18 |
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