America's North Shore Journal

"The per­fect platform"

That's how Com­modore Frank Ponds described the USS Kearsarge's role in human­i­tar­ian assis­tance mis­sions. Kearsarge is in the midst of Oper­a­tion Con­tin­u­ing Promise 2008, sup­port­ing Phase 2 ops in the Caribbean.

Kearsarge deployed from its home port of Nor­folk on August 6, 2008, crammed to the bulk­heads with per­son­nel and sup­plies for this mis­sion. Inte­gral in the plan­ning for CP2008 was the recog­ni­tion that the ship would be at sea dur­ing hur­ri­cane sea­son and, accord­ing to Ponds, pro­vi­sions were made for her to take an active role in dis­as­ter relief if necessary.

Along with the ship's nor­mal oper­at­ing com­ple­ment of sailors, and those addi­tional per­son­nel sup­port­ing the Com­modore, the ship is car­ry­ing a vari­ety of other pas­sen­gers. Embarked units and orga­ni­za­tions aboard Kearsarge for CP include Com­man­der, Amphibi­ous Squadron 8, Fleet Sur­gi­cal Team 4; U.S. Pub­lic Health Ser­vice; Navy Con­struc­tion Bat­tal­ion Main­te­nance Unit 202; Air Force Civil Engi­neer­ing Squadron 5's Prime Base Engi­neer Emer­gency Force; con­tin­gents of med­ical per­son­nel from the armed forces of Canada, The Nether­lands and Brazil; Navy Assault Craft Unit 2; Naval Beach Group 2; non-governmental orga­ni­za­tions Inter­na­tional Aide and Project Hope; U.S. Navy Mar­itime Civil Affairs Squadron 2; Heli­copter Sea Com­bat Squadron (HSC) 28 and Marine Heavy Heli­copter Squadron (HMH) 464; per­son­nel from the uni­formed Pub­lic Health Ser­vice and civil­ians from Oper­a­tion Smile and Project Hope and other NGO's. Dur­ing the mis­sion a num­ber of blog­gers are also on board, pro­vid­ing social media coverage.

Allied nations have pro­vided mil­i­tary per­son­nel for this mis­sion. The Cana­di­ans have 13–15 on board and have had a mil­i­tary media unit record­ing their ser­vice. The Dutch have two mil­i­tary doc­tors. Brazil and France have also pro­vided mil­i­tary for this mission.

Kearsarge made its first stop in Nicaragua and was there August 12–24. Dur­ing these thir­teen days, a great deal was accomplished.

Dur­ing the 13-day oper­a­tion in Nicaragua, embarked NGOs and mil­i­tary units worked side-by-side with partner-nation mil­i­tary and civil­ian pro­fes­sion­als to pro­vide med­ical, den­tal, optom­e­try and vet­eri­nary care along with con­struc­tion, ren­o­va­tion and small-scale civil engi­neer­ing projects.

CP 08 mem­bers worked together with Nicaragua med­ical pro­fes­sion­als to con­duct nearly 1,950 den­tal exams and pro­ce­dures, more than 2,000 optom­e­try exams and 43 surg­eries aboard Kearsarge. In addi­tion, the CP team pro­vided pri­mary care to nearly 7,420 patients and filled more than 20,000 pre­scrip­tions at sev­eral sites in the area.

In the pre­ven­tive med­i­cine arena, teams also con­ducted classes on per­sonal and indus­trial hygiene, the safe prepa­ra­tion of food and water, child devel­op­ment and infant cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.

Engi­neers assigned to Navy Con­struc­tion Bat­tal­ion Main­te­nance Unit 202 and Air Force Civil Engi­neer­ing Squadron 5´s Prime Base Engi­neer Emer­gency Force com­pleted projects at seven sites, includ­ing three schools and a well repair. The work included the con­struc­tion of two sea huts, elec­tri­cal upgrades, roof replace­ment, play­ground con­struc­tion, replac­ing doors and win­dows, paint­ing and landscaping.

Kearsarge ser­vice mem­bers also par­tic­i­pated in var­i­ous com­mu­nity rela­tions projects at the Seabee sites, offer­ing extra hands to help with land­scap­ing work, con­struc­tion and paint­ing ren­o­va­tions. The crew also held a soft­ball com­pe­ti­tion with the local team, the Puerto Cabezas Vet­er­a­nos.

From Nicaragua, Kearsarge sailed to Colum­bia and began work on August 27.

On Sep­tem­ber 6, Kearsarge was ordered to Haiti, to assist in dis­as­ter relief efforts after sev­eral hur­ri­canes hit the region. She arrived Sep­tem­ber 8 and began an intense 18 day effort.

Haiti is judged to be the poor­est nation in the Amer­i­cas. After suf­fer­ing through sev­eral hur­ri­canes, the infra­struc­ture of the coun­try was in ruins and the peo­ple faced the real threats of star­va­tion and dis­ease. The coun­try even lacked the abil­ity to unload the relief sup­plies with fork lifts or other mechan­i­cal assistance.

Com­modore Ponds reported that his per­son­nel, male and female, "humped" the sup­plies off heli­copters and onto trucks, and from the trucks to the dis­tri­b­u­tion cen­ters. The embarked heli­copters of Marine Heavy Heli­copter Squadron 464 and the land­ing craft car­ried by Kearsarge were vital to the trans­porta­tion efforts.

Ponds reports that Kearsarge deliv­ered 3.3 mil­lion pounds of relief sup­plies, 6,000 gal­lons of water and the embarked engi­neers assessed infra­struc­ture dam­age to pro­vide Hait­ian author­i­ties with a pri­or­i­tized list of repairs.

The destruc­tion of roads and bridges meant that heli­copters were often the only means of access to remote areas. Heli­copter Sea Com­bat Squadron 28 (HSC-28) Detach­ment 5 played a major role in this effort.

In a recent flight to Gonaives, HSC-28 made a very spe­cial deliv­ery of food and water to an orphan­age iso­lated by water and deep mud as a result of the recent hur­ri­canes that struck the region. The only way for the staff and chil­dren to receive aid was by an air­drop from one of the squadron's MH-60S Knighthawk helicopters.

"One Amer­i­can cit­i­zen painted a green cir­cle on the top of the orphan­age so we could see where to drop the sup­plies," said Bar­towitz. "There were 45 to 50 kids inside this two story build­ing. The roads were all flooded out and cov­ered in mud. There were peo­ple trudg­ing in the mud waist deep."

Med­ical per­son­nel from Kearsarge, both Amer­i­can and Cana­dian, worked to assess needs and to pro­vide assistance.

"I am glad to be here help­ing the peo­ple of Haiti," said Cana­dian Air Force Capt. Jolene Cook, med­ical aug­mentee embarked aboard Kearsarge. "As a doc­tor, I hope to treat as many peo­ple as I pos­si­bly can, but I will be happy to help these peo­ple out in any way possible."

Kearsarge made a two day run to Naval Sta­tion Guan­tanamo Bay, Cuba, to refuel and obtain sup­plies on Sep­tem­ber 19–21.

Kearsarge con­cluded its relief mis­sion Sep­tem­ber 26. Next stop: the Domini­can Repub­lic.

Kearsarge's 14 day mis­sion in the Domini­can Repub­lic, Octo­ber 3–16, involved med­ical assis­tance, edu­ca­tion and pub­lic works.

Med­ical spe­cial­ists from Kearsarge, Fleet Sur­gi­cal Team (FST) 4, the U.S. Pub­lic Health Ser­vice, Canada, Brazil, France and Project Hope worked together with Domini­can med­ical pro­fes­sion­als to con­duct nearly 750 den­tal exams and pro­ce­dures, more than 2,100 optom­e­try exams, 35 surg­eries aboard Kearsarge, pro­vide more than 16,000 patients pri­mary med­ical care and filled more than 31,600 pre­scrip­tions at sev­eral sites in the area.

In addi­tion to treat­ment, teams also con­ducted sub­ject mat­ter expert exchange work­shops on per­sonal hygiene, sex­ual edu­ca­tion and first aid.

"In some places, we pro­vided care that the cit­i­zens oth­er­wise would not have received," said French Navy Mas­ter Chief Vir­ginia Coste, a nurse embarked aboard Kearsarge for the Domini­can Repub­lic CP 2008 mis­sion. "Whether they received medial treat­ment or just edu­ca­tion, we made a dif­fer­ence, and they know they have our support."

Engi­neers assigned to Navy Con­struc­tion Bat­tal­ion Main­te­nance Unit 202 and Air Force Civil Engi­neer­ing Squadron 5´s Prime Base Engi­neer Emer­gency Force com­pleted projects at four sites. The work included the con­struc­tion of a mod­i­fied facil­ity to house four new class­rooms, expand­ing a local ele­men­tary school in Sabana Grande, and the rehab of a med­ical clinic in Bonao.

Tak­ing time for a break, Kearsarge put in at the Dutch island of Cura­cao for liberty.The per­son­nel aboard did not for­get the peo­ple of Cura­cao, how­ever, and orga­nized and staffed a a two-day optom­e­try clinic.

Keaarsarge is now off Trinidad, its fourth stop in Oper­a­tion Con­tin­u­ing Promise 2008. It's 13 day stay has sev­eral impor­tant tasks underway.

CP's med­ical con­tin­gent, led by Fleet Sur­gi­cal Team (FST) 4, with per­son­nel from the U.S Pub­lic Health Ser­vice; Canada; Brazil; the Nether­lands: and non-government orga­ni­za­tions Project Hope and Inter­na­tional Aid, moved med­ical equip­ment and per­son­nel ashore to begin a 13-day clin­i­cal oper­a­tion, aug­ment­ing local med­ical providers at the Couva Dis­trict Health Facil­ity and the Arima Dis­trict Health Facility.

The embarked Navy Seabee Con­struc­tion Bat­tal­ion Main­te­nance Unit (CBMU) 202 along with engi­neers from the Air Force's 5^th Civil Engi­neer Squadron Prime Base Emer­gency Engi­neer Force also began mov­ing equip­ment ashore to pre­pare for ren­o­va­tion work in the Port of Spain and Tuna­puna regions at the All-in-One Child Devel­op­ment Cen­ter, the St. Jude's School for Girls and Cyril Ross Nursery.

Com­modore Frank Ponds spoke with a num­ber of us dur­ing a Blog­gers' Round­table today. He talked in detail about the work being done by his peo­ple and the other units aboard Kearsarge.

• 107,373 patients have been med­ically assessed and some 34,000 treated
• 64,000 phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals have been dispensed
• 91 repairs of bio-medical equipment
• 104 med­ical pro­ce­dures per­formed on board
• den­tal work for 4,000 patients
• 4,000 ani­mals, both live­stock and pets, treated.

Ponds sin­gled out Oper­a­tion Smile for its work with cleft palate chil­dren. Some of the med­ical pro­ce­dures on board were to cor­rect this birth defect. He antic­i­pates addi­tional such med­ical pro­ce­dures as the mis­sion continues.

Kearsarge will remain deployed until early December.

• Pub­lic Health Service
• Project HOPE
• Oper­a­tion Smile
• Project Hand­clasp

Photo cap­tions:

1. USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) under­way near Bangladesh, dis­as­ter relief mission
2. U.S. Air Force Senior Air­men Alexan­dra Olson, embarked aboard the USS Kearsarge (LHD 3), teaches chil­dren den­tal hygiene dur­ing a human­i­tar­ian mis­sion in Beta­nia, Nicaragua, on Aug. 17, 2008. The Kearsarge, which is deployed with var­i­ous embarked units and non­govern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions, is sup­port­ing the Caribbean phase of Con­tin­u­ing Promise 2008, an equal part­ner­ship mis­sion between the United States, Canada, the Nether­lands, Brazil, Nicaragua, Panama, Colum­bia, Domini­can Repub­lic, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana. DoD photo by Petty Offi­cer 3^rd Class Christo­pher Lange, U.S. Navy
3. U.S. Navy Petty Offi­cer 3^rd Class Car­rie Broom, from the USS Kearsarge (LHD 3), helps a boy paint dur­ing a vol­un­teer com­mu­nity event in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, on Aug. 23, 2008. The Kearsarge, which is deployed with var­i­ous embarked units and non­govern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions, is sup­port­ing the Caribbean phase of Con­tin­u­ing Promise 2008, an equal part­ner­ship mis­sion between the United States, Canada, the Nether­lands, Brazil, Nicaragua, Panama, Colum­bia, Domini­can Repub­lic, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana. DoD photo by Petty Offi­cer 2^nd Class Gina Woll­man, U.S. Navy
4. U.S. Navy sailors assigned to the amphibi­ous assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) load sup­plies onto a CH-53 Super Stal­lion heli­copter in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to be deliv­ered to areas affected by recent hur­ri­canes on Sept. 13, 2008. The Kearsarge was diverted from its sched­uled deploy­ment in sup­port of the human­i­tar­ian assis­tance mis­sion Con­tin­u­ing Promise 2008 to con­duct hur­ri­cane relief oper­a­tions in Haiti. DoD photo by Petty Offi­cer 3^rd Class Christo­pher Lange, U.S. Navy
5. U.S. Navy Petty Offi­cer 2^nd Class Car­los Mon­ser­rat, from Con­struc­tion Bat­tal­ion Mobile Unit 202, and Air Force engi­neer Staff Sgt. Richard Mon­salve, both embarked aboard the amphibi­ous assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3), make adjust­ments to con­crete blocks at the Socorro Sanchez Pri­mary School con­struc­tion site dur­ing the human­i­tar­ian and civic assis­tance mis­sion Con­tin­u­ing Promise 2008 in Santo Domingo, Domini­can Repub­lic, on Oct. 4, 2008. The Kearsarge is deployed in sup­port of the Caribbean phase of Con­tin­u­ing Promise 2008, an equal-partnership mis­sion between the United States, Canada, the Nether­lands, Brazil, Nicaragua, Panama, Colom­bia, Domini­can Repub­lic, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana. DoD photo by Petty Offi­cer 3^rd Class Mad­delin Ange­brand, U.S. Navy