Posted on 01/04/2005 5:05:11 PM PST by longjack
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| Home > Panorama > Flutkatastrophe in Südostasien |
HELICOPTER-MISSIONS IN ACEH The last hope are the Seahawks From Banda Aceh reports Andreas Lorenz For many people they are the last hope: US-Helicopters that can get to the flood victims by air who, so far, have been cut off from the outside world. The soldiers bring food by the ton into the hardest hit areas. The aid mission is for the Americans a PR-campaign as well.
Lieutenant Gabriel Bullaro banks his Seahawk helicopter carefully over what remains of the city. Then he puts the silver-gray helicoptor with the decal HC-11 down on a small patch of stone. The Rotors blow up a sandstorm. Nonetheless, inhabitants immediately storm the machine, which has four "deuce" playing cards painted on the side. A pair of uniformed Indonesians, guns on their shoulder, keep them from tearing the doors open in order to get to the valuable cargo more quickly.
Click on a picture, to start the slideshow (18 Pictures). In no time at all, three American marines are throwing the out boxes with water, crackers, noodles and other foodstuffs that are stacked up to the roof of the chopper. The Indonesians quickly build a chain, more and more citizens come by to pickup the cartons.
There is a professional coolness on board. One of them identifies himself with his badge on his arm as "Death Cheater", someone who outsmarts death. The windows are open the whole flight, the pilots have put a little doll up on the cockpit console. The U.S. Navy in action in Indonesia's crisis province Aceh in the northern Sumatra: More than 75 times over the last two days it has flown into remote villages still cut off from the outside world, in order to provide the victims with aid materials. The navy pilots take on injured passengers occasionally. International journalists line up impatiently at the airport to get hold of a spot on one of the helicopters. Dashing public information officers ("Call me Smack") make out lists with names, only to immediately throw them out again and then, full of bravado, bark at the reporters. Some have waited two days for the opportunity to see the disaster area from the air.
The twelve U.S. helicopters in use in Aceh are stationed on the aircraft carrier "Abraham Lincoln" which lies off Banda Aceh. This is the ship on which U.S. President George W. Bush heralded the end of the Iraq war with the words "mission accomplished" in May 2003. The Americans want to even increase their help in the next several hours. A second aircraft carrier group has set sail for Sumatra. They will supply Chinook cargo helicopters for the area. They are urgently needed. Rescue operations suffered from a heavy setback earlier today, local time. Neither cargo aircraft nor passenger aircraftcould land in Banda Aceh. The cause was a water buffalo that trotted over the runway as a passenger plane touched down. The results of the collision ended up to be relatively light, thank god, but the crashed plane broke down in the middle of the landing strip --with its nose on the asphalt, since the nose wheel was bent. The Heavy equipment necessary to hoist the Boeing 737 off the runway wasn't in place until Tuesday evening, local time. The Bundeswehr also had to fight difficulties. When they wanted to check out the situation yesterday, shortly after their arrival, the German soldiers didn't have a car at their disposal. The planned reconnaissance flight was cancelled, too. It was made up today. Befoehand, the Berlin soldiers had already decided to participate in the rescue operations by seeting up an "air -land rescue center" in Banda Aceh: a small hospital tent equipped with an operating table, X-Ray machine and laboratory. However, an advance team is necessary to do this, also. It should start out in the direction of Sumatra on January 6th. In the meantime, the technical relief organization is waiting for the arrival of nine Iljuschin cargo planes, that have nine Unimogs and two SUV's, plus equipment to condition water. By then, lieutenant Bullaro will have flown quite a bunch of missions with his Seahawk, and will have delivered precious cargo to thousands of tsunami victims.
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Says it all.
Herr Lorenz has written two great stories about our guys in as many days.
longjack
"The aid mission is for the Americans a PR-campaign as well."
but typical of the leftist swine - they all think in terms of how something affects them, so they assume we are just as selfish as they are.
and..... Since I cut off the last part of the original post:
"Spiegel-Online"....Letzte Rettung durch die Seahawks
Translated by longjack © SPIEGEL ONLINE 2005
Alle Rechte vorbehalten
Vervielfältigung nur mit Genehmigung der SPIEGELnet GmbH
longjack
Thanks longjack.....It's nice to know some don't think of US as "stingy"!
Thanks for posting this. Shame on those who insist the US Navy shouldn't save these people from starvation. Shame on them.
Ich bin fuer Vertidiegung!
And he's been brutal about what the Bundeswehr team has been doing (more like NOT doing) in the same timeframe!
My 2 cents, after reading this guy's writing for two days, is that his line about the PR campaign doesn't mean it was a goal, rather it's a by-product of our soldiers' actions.
The reporter is really impressed with how our guys are doing their jobs and is taking it to his own country to task for doing so little, and for doing it so beaurocratically.
This type of article is a bombshell in the German media.
longjack
Thanks, I always appreciate your efforts with the "German Ping."
thanks for the translation, longjack. Good article. I'm heading to Muenster end of next week.
Rob
I don't think the water buffalo liked it too much.
PETA outraged.
longjack
Sounds like this guy should move to the top of the list.
Hey, thanks for the nice article, but nice German magazine articles aren't getting people fed. Where are all the Europeans? Chirac and Schroeder may want to become "poles in opposition to US power," but they are AWOL from this immediate situation. Where are the German, French, Italian, and Spanish navies? Don't the Europeans have any airplanes or ships? It is, what, 2-weeks since the disaster and we are still waiting for more than "diplomats" and "assessment groups". Yeah, yeah, thanks for pledging the bits of money and all, but (news for you?), people cannot eat money.
Can any of you nice European FReepers here tell me how many people Germany or France have fed to date? For that matter, how many people has the UN fed? Directly, not including OTHER country's efforts (like the US, Australia, Japan, and Singapore). Medical care? How many patients have the EU relief doctors seen? How many tonnes of medical supplies has the EU delivered?
Maybe socialism has REALLY rendered the EU impotent. Looks like your politicians are really good at insulting and deriding other nations responses, but can't get it up when it comes to actually DOING something (as opposed to dumping some money on the problem and letting others do the heavy lifting).
Thanks for posting this.
I wonder how many people reading this will even factor in the USN aircraft carrier and the people on board, as " USA aid contributions".
God bless Japan,Australia and the other non-UN core group countries who sprang into action with actual, concrete "aid" without awaiting UN approval.
Do we have an "exit strategy" yet? //sarcasm//
It's like my wife just said, how do you explain that to the insurance company?
:)
In no time at all, three American marines are throwing the out boxes with water, crackers, noodles and other foodstuffs that are stacked up to the roof of the chopper. The Indonesians quickly build a chain, more and more citizens come by to pickup the cartons.
It takes hardly ten minutes and about two tons of aid goods are on the ground. Indonesian civilians and soldiers shake the Americans' hands gratefully.
Genesis 41:33 Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.>>>
Genesis 41:38 And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?
Genesis 41:39 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art:
The Americans are doing the work, the Germans are looking things over and conferring.
His article from yesterday is here:
Free Republic....US-Navy Flying Aid, German Army Still Looking Things Over"
I'm not a European, and I also do know that articles don't feed refugees.
Articles that praise our military are rare, however, especially from Europe and, when there is a European reporter who rides with our guys who has the b*lls to put his praise of them in print, I'm going to translate it if I can.
longjack
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