Contractors lift the brow from USS George Washington -CVN 73- prior to the ship getting underway from Changi Naval Base in Singapore. The George Washington Carrier Strike Group departed early from Singapore Oct. 16 to better position themselves for potential humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, if needed, in support of the government of Thailand following significant flooding there. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jacob D. Moore

The nuclear aircraft carrier USS George Washington and its strike group are cutting short a port visit in Singapore. The U.S. Navy ships are moving to be in position to assist the Kingdom of Thailand with the heavy monsoon flooding it is now experiencing. Deploying with the Washington are USS Dewey, USS Mustin, USS Kidd and USS Wayne E Meyer.

The ship movements come after the arrival of a U.S. Marine Corps humanitarian assistance survey team from Okinawa in Bangkok, Thailand, on October 15. The ten Marines are part of the pre-planning team from the Third Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF). Their assessment will provide the groundwork for any Marine humanitarian assistance and disaster response.

The George Washington Strike Group and the III MEF played vital roles in the aftermath of the March 11 Japanese earthquake and tsunami. The United States military, as a whole, has been a key component of relief efforts worldwide.

Southeast Asian nations have been suffering from the combination of a heavy monsoon season and the impacts of three tropical storms since September 26. Thailand has suffered the greatest impact and the most flood related deaths. The UN reports at least 269 flood deaths in Thailand. The American Embassy in Bangkok warns that flooding in and around the Thai capital is expected to peak between October 16-18.

The Thai capital of Bangkok straddles the Chao Phraya River. An ancient network of canals adds to the glamour of the city as well as to the threat from flooding. The Kingdom is engaged in extensive efforts to prevent urban flooding in Bangkok.

The flooding extends to other SE Asian nations. Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam are all experiencing deaths and damages from the high water. At this time, only Thailand has requested U.S. assistance. The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok has released $100,000 from its emergency fund to the Thai Red Cross for flood relief.

The USS George Washington and its strike group have the distinction of being forward deployed, home ported in the city of Yokosuka, Japan. The carrier last made a port call in Thailand in early August 2011. The ships of the strike group will be able to provide nearly two dozen helicopters for rescue, survey and humanitarian efforts, as well as personnel, supplies and pure drinking water.

The impact of the flooding on the city of Bangkok and the Kingdom of Thailand continues and can only worsen. The U.S. Consul General in Chiang Mai, Thailand, writes on his blog that rumors and poor communication are causing a great deal of uncertainty in the Kingdom. If and when the U.S. military receives orders to assist the Thais, the uncertainties ought to be markedly reduced.

Coast Guardsmen from Coast Guard Cutter Walnut fill containers with fresh water for a small island nation in the South Pacific suffering from severe drought conditions October 7, 2011. Crews from Coast Guard Cutter Walnut and New Zealand assessment teams traveled from American Samoa to the island-nation of Tokelau for a joint humanitarian relief effort. U.S. Coast Guard photo.

As the island nation of Tokelau, a territory of New Zealand, entered severe drought levels, the approximately 1,500 residents looked beyond its shores for assistance.  Isolated from their nearest neighbor by roughly 300 miles of ocean with the dire outlook of only seven days left of available drinking water, the U.S. Coast Guard answered the call for help.

The mission to support Tokelau started when the U. S. Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand, contacted Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu to discuss the operation of transporting a New Zealand assessment team and fresh drinking water to Tokelau.

“Like New Zealand, the United States is committed to helping our Pacific neighbors when they are in need,” said U.S. Ambassador David Huebner. “This is a very real humanitarian need here. We are talking about approximately 1,500 people who could be out of fresh water within a week.”

A Coast Guard buoy tender from Honolulu, Coast Guard Cutter Walnut, happened to be on routine patrol in the Pacific servicing aids to navigation when they received the call for the humanitarian mission.

With no useable airfield on the islands an air mission was impossible, making the Walnut the perfect means to deliver and fill Tokelau’s available water tanks with drinkable water.

“The Coast Guard routinely supports the Pacific island countries in this region during search and rescue cases and fisheries patrols,” said Rear Adm. Charles W. Ray, commander of the 14th Coast Guard District. “Our existing relationships between Pacific island countries are essential to facilitate rapid response during times of need.”

Over the weekend the crew of the Walnut departed after a successful distribution of more than 32,000 gallons of fresh water between each of the three island atolls that make up the nation of Tokelau.

This swift response to a unique mission is nothing new to the crew of Walnut.  In the past decade, their missions have taken them around the globe, including: deploying to support Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, assisting the U.S. Army and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in recovering more than 62,000 pounds of marine debris from the Pacific and recovering more than 270,000 gallons of oily water from the Gulf of Mexico in support of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. All of this in addition to their primary missions.

“We are a military service whose mission is multi-operational; not only do we service aids to navigation, perform search and rescue and law enforcement, we also have the capability to respond to humanitarian missions,” said Lt. Cmdr. Brian Huff, commanding officer of  Walnut. “We are fortunate to be in the position to work with foreign and local governments and help the people in Tokelau.”

Posted by: PA2 Kelly Parker with contributions from Petty Officer 3rd Class Angela Henderson, 14th Coast Guard District public affairs specialist.
U.S. Coast Guard

U.S. Army Capt. Jill Lynn, 490th Civil Affairs Battalion Functional Specialty Team veterinarian, and community animal health worker Mohammed Isaq -second from left- work together to treat a young camel during an eight-day Veterinary Civic Action Program in Negele, Ethiopia, Aug. 23, 2011. Photo Credit: U.S. Air Force Capt. Jennifer Pearson

More than 25,000 cattle, camels, chickens and other animals received necessary veterinary treatments Aug. 16-24 in an effort to help livestock in the Miesa and Siminto, Ethiopia, region survive the current drought.

A partnership between local Animal Health Assistants (AHAs), Community Animal Health Workers (CAHWs), the district veterinary office of the Negele Borena Region of Ethiopia, and members of the 490th Civil Affairs Battalion Functional Specialty Team (490 CABN FXSP) from the Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa conducted a Veterinary Civic Action Program, or VETCAP.

According to Dr. Dejene Taye, Negele Borena District Veterinary Officer, a similar VETCAP in December helped more than 90 percent of the livestock in the region survive a drought, and the current support will continue to help the livestock make it through the next drought.

“It is very satisfying working with the Americans and it is good for the communities,” said Dr. Dejene. “Thanks to the government, this support helps the pastoralists and will help to save more than 20 thousand breeding cattle.”

The CAHWs gave multivitamin injections as well as treatments for trypanosomiasis, the most economically important livestock disease of Africa, especially in cattle. Trypanosomiasis, known as sleeping sickness in humans, affects all aspects of animal production – fertility, birth weights, lactation, growth and survival.

The CAHWs also cleaned and treated animal’s wounds and administered injections of antibiotics and medications for other parasitic diseases.

Gera Huka, a local villager, traveled more than 10 kilometers to have his livestock treated against worms and to receive multi-vitamins. “Some of my cattle are sick or have wounds,” said Huka. “I thank the government and America for helping my cattle.”

Dr. Dejene Taye -right- and Animal Health Assistant Behailu Fekede -center- clean an infected head wound on a calf while U.S. Army Capt. Jill Lynn, 490th Civil Affairs Functional Specialty Team veterinarian, assists during an eight -day Veterinary Civic Action Program in Negele, Ethiopia Aug. 24, 2011. Photo Credit: U.S. Air Force Capt. Jennifer Pearson

The VETCAP was also a good learning experience for the Civil Affairs team to better understand the types of illnesses and injuries of the livestock and how the CAHWs identify and treat the animals.

“Dr. Dejene, the AHAs and the CAHWs have been great to work with in the classroom and in the field,” said U.S. Army Capt. Jill Lynn, 490 CA BN FXSP veterinarian and mission commander. “Working together we have made a difference for the animals and the community. I know Dr. Dejene and his team will continue to do good things to help keep the livestock healthy for the community.”

During the completion ceremony, Boru Cherfole, an AHA, stated, “Though you could not understand the people at the crush site because they speak a different language, it echoed throughout the day that everyone was very happy that you were here to help with the treatment of animals. It was great to see the U.S. Army Civil Affairs vet team side by side with us treating animals. You weren’t just sitting there; you were out there with us helping our community.”

Other community health workers echoed the sentiment by thanking the team and their hard work.

“You showed great commitment in the field when we worked together,” said AHA Behailu Fekede. “You helped us at the beginning and now it is up to us to continue and help our community.”

By Capt. Jennifer Pearson, USAF
Combined Joint Task Force — Horn of Africa Public Affairs
U.S. Army

Female Engagement Team 13 member Lance Cpl. Jacqueline Veres smiles as she gives a backpack full of school supplies to an Afghan girl at the closing of the Sangin Youth Outreach Shura at Forward Operating Base Jackson, Aug 17. With a literacy rate of seven percent in Sangin, District Governor Mohammad Sherrif has recognized the need for education here. Through his outreach shuras to the community he impresses on the people the need for the children of Sangin to become educated so one day they will be able to assume leadership roles within the up and coming Sangin government. Sherrif realizes and tells the people “children are the future of Sangin.” Veres is from Canton, Ga.

More than 85 children from around Sangin attended the Sangin Youth Outreach Shura held by Female Engagement Teams assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, at Forward Operating Base Jackson, Aug. 17.

“It is important to work with the youth of Sangin because just like the kids in the U.S., they want to grow up to be something,” said Sgt. Juanita Towns, the FET 13 team leader. “So it is just best that we try to start them off on the right path at a young age vice letting them join the (insurgency) now.”

When on patrol with the battalion’s infantry squads the team members spread the word about the youth shuras and have recently had Afghan Uniformed Police officers help them in their endeavor to reach out to the children of Sangin.

The children, ages 1-14, were split into three groups in which they participated in age-appropriate informative stations and activities. This enabled the FETs to reach out to each age group more effectively, and is modeled after the cultural breakdown the children often gravitate towards on their own.

“It’s the first activity in Sangin for the kids, focused on the kids,” said FET member Lance Cpl. Jacqueline Veres. “So we are just trying to get them to see that we are here to help them, they can come to us and they can trust us.”

“The first one we had was a hygiene shura. The shura that we just had was a healthcare, education and activities shura,” said Towns, a Richmond, Va., native. “They played soccer, they did their time tables and the smaller kids just played with educational toys.”

With a literacy rate of seven percent in Sangin, District Governor Mohammad Sherrif has recognized the need for education here. Through his outreach shuras to the community he impresses on the people the need for the children of Sangin to become educated so one day they will be able to assume leadership roles within the up and coming Sangin government. Sherrif realizes and tells the people “children are the future of Sangin.”

“Children are the innocent ones in most cases,” said Towns, a parent herself. “If they are not educated there is just a repetitive cycle of insurgency and drugs. If you educate them when they are small there is an opportunity for them to be better than that and do positive things.”

Until last year, these children had not been afforded opportunities to break the trend and reach new levels. However teaching children how to do this is a challenging task since they lack the focus levels of adults. So the team had to mix things up to captivate their young audience and keep them interested in the shura.

“We know that they have a short attention span and if we talk to them for an hour like we do with the women then we are not going to get anything accomplished,” explained Towns. “If we have different activities and different things for them to do, they are going to participate, we are going to hold their attention longer and they are going to come back.”

Sometimes when the children do come back to the gates of the base they are looking for free hand outs and naturally are not interested in discussion of long term solutions. Other times the children show up wanting just to spend time with the teams. This requires the engagement teams to improvise and make the best of each situation.

“Even in between shuras we go to the gate and have 20 to 30 kids wanting to just come and talk to us,” said Veres a Canton, Ga., native. “We don’t really have anything planned sometimes, but we will just sit down and hold a mini-shura.”

The youth shuras in Sangin will continue to further expand their horizons to a new way of life that breaks the trend that plagues the region. In short, the activities give the youth something better, which is important to developing and educating the next generation of citizens and leaders in Sangin.

Youth shuras take place in several locations across Helmand province including the districts of Musa Qal’eh, Now Zad, Garmsir and Marjah.

“I think as soon as we stop having youth shuras we will see more insurgent activity, because we have actually given them something to look forward to every two weeks,” said Towns. “If they didn’t have that outreach on life then they would just do something bad that we are not ready to take the fall for.”

First Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, is currently assigned to Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division (Forward), which heads Task Force Leatherneck. The task force serves as the ground combat element of Regional Command (Southwest) and works in partnership with the Afghan National Security Forces and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to conduct counterinsurgency operations. The unit is dedicated to securing the Afghan people, defeating insurgent forces, and enabling ANSF assumption of security responsibilities within its area of operations in order to support the expansion of stability, development and legitimate governance.

Story by Cpl. Benjamin Crilly
DVIDS

San Francisco Earthquake of 1906: Stockton Street from Union Square, looking toward Market Street. ARC Identifier: 524403 NARA National Archives and Records Administration. Photographer: Chadwick, H. D. US Gov War Department. Office of the Chief Signal Officer.

In 1906, Marines were more than the first to fight. They were first to fight fires, rescue earthquake victims and restore order.

The Bay area’s military ran toward the fray, working to secure the fractured city, quench fires and save lives. Reports filed by Navy and Army officials after the earthquake testified to the military’s response when the earth shifted and one of the greatest natural disasters struck.

The San Andreas fault groaned to life about 5:15 a.m. on Apr. 18, 1906. Among the immediate damages were toppled buildings, ripped open cobblestone streets and wounded and dead citizens across the hilly city. Worse yet, gas lines burst open and raging fires. Water mains also burst, hampering the city’s firefighters in their task to fight the blaze. The city’s fire chief sent the urgent request for military assistance to U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Frederick Funston, the ranking military authority in the area. He promptly sent word back to the city’s mayor troops would assist. Although martial law was never declared, Marines were among the soldiers and sailors who mobilized across the city.

Lt. Col. Lincoln Karmany was the commanding officer of the Marine Detachment on Mare Island and Capt. Arthur T. Matrix commanded the Marine Barracks Naval Training Station San Francisco. Together they organized their Marines to restore order and being firefighting operations.

According to a 2006 article in “Prologue” by Rebecca Livingston, Marines from USS Independence and recruits from the Marine Barracks at Mare Island arrived landed ashore within three hours after the earthquake struck. From letters collected at the time, their performance was admirable.

Arthur H. Dutton was the editor of the San Francisco News Letter and a member of the Press Club of San Francisco. In a letter to Navy Rear Adm. Bowman H., McCalla, now part of the collection of the Museum of the City of San Francisco, he praised the Marines’ actions, noting their discipline.

“I was at Fort Mason when the Marines arrived, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Lincoln Karmany,” Dutton wrote in his letter. “I have been much in contact with troops, both American and foreign, but I never saw a finer looking, better disciplined body of men. From the moment of their arrival, the Marines performed their duties like clock-work. Stoves were up, coffee being made and served out, latrines built, prisoners guarded, refugees succored, and everything else done to meet the situation,–and all quietly, methodically and thoroughly.”

Accounts of Dutton’s letter were reported May 8, 1906 in the New York Times.

The accounts of Marines in action after the 1906 earthquake were reported by Navy Lt. Frederick N. Freeman, stationed aboard the torpedo boat destroyer, USS Perry. The ship was moored at Mare Island when the quake struck. Freeman organized firefighting parties and patrols for security in the city, which was rapidly deteriorating.

“My force was unarmed with the exception of the officers, who carried revolvers; and the police, of whom I only saw two, were absolutely helpless,” Freeman stated in his report. “The crowds rushed saloon after saloon and looted the stocks becoming intoxicated early in the day.”

Freeman was infuriated with locals who took advantage of the situation. The scene was grim, he stated. Women and children needed rescuing in the Rincon Hill neighborhood after the fire swept through in less than a half hour. Even more infuriating, he said, were men who refused to aid “old and crippled men and women,” and refused to work for nothing less than 40 cents an hour.

But with a few Marines, Freeman started to clean up the waterfront.

He wrote, “I instructed First Lieutenant Smith, U.S.M.C, who had been in charge of a small squad of five men from the Active, to organize a patrol for the waterfront. This he did with excellent results, stopping all looting along the water front, closing all saloons, and assisting the relief work along the waterfront.

It wasn’t all security patrols. Marines were battling blazes, too.

“The fire would have been communicated by a number of coal sheds and cooper-shops,” Freeman reported. “A detachment of Marines at this time made its appearance, on their way back to Fort Mason, under command of Lieut. [sic] Brewster, U.S.M.C., and gave valuable aid in impressing men to assist the firefighters. About three hundred men were impressed into the service, and soon reduced the buildings under the lee of the burning houses on Telegraph Hill to ruins pulling down fences, removing fuel, etc., and when the fire did get through it was easily extinguished with one stream of water.”

Freeman singled one Marine out, Pvt. William P. Burton for his actions. It was likely that Burton particularly enjoyed his work. Burton was noted for his ability to demolish things with dynamite in order to reduce the inferno.

“He was cool and collected and possessed of great bravery, and I recommend that he be commended for his zeal and skill,” Freeman stated.

It wasn’t just Burton who stood out among the Marine contingent. Livingston’s Prologue article singled out 1st Lt. Fred. A. Udell, who was a patient at the Mare Island Naval Hospital suffering from a kidney disease. When the earthquake struck, he climbed out of his sick bed and fought fires for two days, rescued people and even guarded a bank from looters. Only when the control was restored did he climb back into his bed. His suffering was bad enough that he was medically retired later that year.

The earthquake even came a chance for one Marine to redeem himself. Livingston also wrote about 2nd Lt. John H. White, who was a courts-martial prisoner at Mare Island Marine Barracks. He was in pre-trial confinement for public drunkenness and profane language. When the quake hit, he was pressed into service. He performed so admirably, in fact, his charges were dropped on April 21, just days after the crisis hit. He didn’t get off completely unscathed though.

Livingston wrote, “He received a stern letter that warned him not to take advantage of the situation and that further drunkenness would not be tolerated.”

DVIDS