From: "BURR
To: "'Joe & Mary
Subject: Different viewpoint
Date: Sunday, January 30, 2005 17:10

    Long BUT Worth Reading........

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  ofso-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  a  go. 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 w as 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.