Sgt. Melvain StGeorge, a supply clerk with Company A, 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, and native of Montrouis, Haiti, debarks a Landing Craft Utility, Aug. 1, in Port-de-Paix, Haiti. Throughout Haiti, StGeorge served as a Creole translator to key leaders from Haiti and the USS Iwo Jima. Marines and Sailors of the Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Continuing Promise 2010, participated in a ten-day mission in Haiti and provided medical, dental, optometry and engineering to the Haitian citizens. Photo by Sgt. Samuel Beyers

The Marine Corps is home to thousands of Marines born in places other than the United States. These Marines are used to deploying all around the globe, sometimes at a moment’s notice. Sometimes these special individuals get the unique opportunity to return to their home country proudly wearing the eagle, globe and anchor.

Six Marines currently deployed to the Caribbean, Central and South America spent ten days in their home country, Haiti, where they served as translators for Marines and Sailors of the Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Continuing Promise 2010 and USS Iwo Jima.

Gunnery Sgt. Felder Domond, Cpl. John H. Michel, and Lance Cpl. Frantz Rosemond, natives of Port-au-Price, Haiti, Staff Sgt. Vladimyr Merci, native of Liancourt, Haiti, Staff Sgt. Vanes Alabre, native of Port-Salut, Haiti, and Sgt. Melvain St George, native of Montrouis, Haiti, traveled from medical sites to engineering sites translating Creole to English and English to Creole to ensure key leaders of Haiti and the USS Iwo Jima knew how daily operations were being executed and ensured the Haiti crowd remained calm, as they waited to seen by a medical provider. Their presence was absolutely essential in the success of the humanitarian mission.

During the CP10 mission in Haiti, personnel aboard the USS Iwo Jima provided medical, dental, optometry, veterinary and engineering services to the people in Port-de-Paix and Saint-Louis de Nord.

Domond from Combat Logistics Regiment 27 and staff noncommissioned officer in charge of the Logistics Combat Element, and Merci, a supply chief with Marine Air Control Squadron 2, Command Element, worked with United Nations Haiti National Police, mayors of Port-de-Paix and Saint-Louis de Nord and leaders from USS Iwo Jima in translating plans and missions of the operations in Haiti.

At the medical sites, when hundreds of Haitians crowded and formed disorganized lines, Domond and Merci intervened and restored order before the scene turned into a riot.

“We needed to calm everyone down in order for (Haitians) to receive the help they were waiting for,” said Domond. “We feel like this is where we were born, and we wanted to help them out by simply talking to them and without anyone causing violence.”

Aside from their translating roles, the six Marines were able to talk among their fellow Haitians. Staff Sgt. Vanes Alabre said many Haitian citizens remembered him when he went out to the different sites.

“We would pack up and leave pretty early and before I left they would thank me and the Marines for what we were doing,” said Alabre, an aviation life support systems technician with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 774, Aviation Combat Element of Special-Purpose MAGTF. “The next day I would return to the same site, and they always said hello. It was very humbling to be there and help them out.”

For some Marines aboard the USS Iwo Jima it was there first time stepping onto Haitian soil during a deployment. For Merci and St George, it was there second time deploying to Haiti in 2010. Shortly after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 12, 2010, Merci, and St George, embarked aboard the USS Bataan with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit en route to Port-au-Prince for Haiti relief efforts.

“My mom never wanted me to join the Marine Corps,” said Merci. “It wasn’t until I told her that I was going to Haiti after the earthquake to go and help our people. She was proud to know I was going to help our people, and if it weren’t for me being in the Marine Corps, I may have not gotten the chance to go back and help.”

During the time that St George and Merci spent in Haiti from January to April, they served as translators, so they could understand how the Marines were providing aid in clearing out debris and passing out food and water.

“It was extremely rough seeing what the tremendous damage the earthquake did,” said St George, a supply clerk with 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, Ground Combat Element of Special-Purpose MAGTF. “Helping out was a noble deed, and it was a wonderful experience. I enjoyed my time helping out after the earthquake and helping out the people in Port-de-Paix. They don’t have the same medical options we have in the U.S., and it was nice to see that we can give them a helping hand.”

When the Haiti-native Marines were in Haiti, they were home. They were able to show that they can support their countries … both the United States and Haiti.

“This by far has been the highlight of my Marine Corps career,” said Alabre. “I was able to go home and help my people during a deployment and it was one of the best moments I’ve had so far.”

DVIDS
Story by Cpl. Alicia R. Giron

This is the yearly humanitatian effort in Latin America run by the US Navy. Continuing Promise 2008 stories begin here.

Several dozen pallets stretched across a docking area yesterday – a fraction of those waiting to be loaded onto trucks for distribution throughout Haiti – providing a tangible symbol of evolving partnerships officials call key to Continuing Promise 2009′s success.

Navy Capt. Robert G. Lineberry Jr., commodore and tactical commander of the hospital ship USNS Comfort, presided at a ceremonial handover of more than 350 pallets of humanitarian support donated by international aid groups.

Comfort, making the first stop of its four-month humanitarian assistance mission through the region, transported the pallets of 1.4 million meals, medical supplies, blankets, baby wipes and hygiene supplies to Haiti from the United States.

After anchoring about three miles offshore in Port au Prince harbor, April 9, Navy aircrews began ferrying the supplies ashore, sling-loading them from MH-60 Seahawks.

“It was a lot of work,” conceded Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jason Basham, a Navy civil affairs practitioner who helped stage the pallets aboard ship, then offloaded them ashore. “But the feeling I have about this is really good. I met a lot of good people who I know they will do great things with it.

“After all,” he said, “this is all part of enhancing the partnership of the Continuing Promise mission.”

Lineberry praised the partnerships that not only made the deliveries possible, but also are bringing critical skills and support to the Continuing Promise mission.

“Over the last two days, the team onboard Comfort has moved over 350 pallets here into Haiti,” he told a group assembled under a tent to shade them from the hot mid-day sun. “Today, we take time to recognize our great partners who helped us all along the way to make this mission so valuable.”

The first Continuing Promise mission, in 2007, included just “a handful” of nongovernmental organization representatives, Lineberry told American Forces Press Service.

“We’ve learned a lot in this mission and expanded our number of partners,” he said. “We learned very quickly of the capability, the willingness and the resources that our partners have – and that they want to be out here with us.”

So this Continuing Promise mission, the fourth through Latin America and the Caribbean during the past three years, includes representatives of nearly a dozen humanitarian groups.

They’re people like Rob Voynow, a licensed practical nurse who said he jumped at the chance to participate, along with 13 other members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “This is something that just doesn’t come along every day,” Voynow said. “It’s a way to make an important contribution, bringing different types of expertise.”

David Eddey, special projects manager for Project Hope, got his first exposure to the military when he served aboard USNS Mercy, Comfort’s sister ship, providing disaster response and humanitarian relief following the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia. “Since then, Project Hope has developed a wonderful working relationship with the military,” he said.

Project Hope has 20 volunteers aboard Comfort, and will contribute a total of 97 volunteers before Continuing Promise wraps up in late July.

Eddey expressed pride in the mission’s evolution during the past two years, particularly the increasing role of host-country nongovernmental organizations. “We’re breaking down barriers and showing synergistically what it’s possible for us to do together,” he said. “We’re working together to bring hope to people in need.”

Together, these and other participating nongovernmental organizations have quadrupled donations to the mission since Continuing Promise 2007, noted Capt. Thomas J. Finger, a civilian Military Sealift Command boat captain and Comfort’s master.

“What we’re hoping is that these food and hygiene and medical supplies will, over time, improve the quality of life of the neediest Haitians,” Finger said.

In addition, many of the humanitarian volunteers bring medical and dental skills to the mission, working alongside military and U.S. Public Health Service medical professionals aboard Comfort and at clinics ashore.

The partnership makes the most of strengths each participating entity brings to the effort, Lineberry said. This includes the military’s extensive planning capabilities — “an enormous resource” on USNS Comfort, he said.

The 250-bed floating hospital is equipped and staffed to provide just about any kind of medical treatment except open-heart surgery or organ transplants.

Nearly halfway into its 10-day visit to Haiti, its crew of medical professionals from the Navy, Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, international partners, U.S. Public Health Service and nongovernmental organizations is conducting 15 to 25 surgeries a day, according to Navy Capt. James J. Ware, who overseas Comfort medical operations.

Meanwhile, the staff is seeing about 500 patients a day at onshore medical sites set up through coordination with Haiti’s health ministry, he said.

“We know we can’t do everything today,” Ware said at yesterday’s ceremony. “But we will be back with our partners. We hope to bring additional international doctors and nurses, and all work together for the benefit of the people of Haiti.”

DVIDS
Story by Donna Miles