Posted on 10/24/2005 10:46:26 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The United States has said it would nearly double its military forces in earthquake relief efforts in Pakistan to 1,000 as Washington steps up aid to its "war on terror" ally reeling from the deadly disaster.
The higher troop levels will come as Washington takes on bigger responsibilities in reconstruction and medical aid, including the setting up of two mobile hospitals with facilities to perform major surgeries, military officials said.
Rear Admiral Michael LeFever, the Islamabad-based director of the US Disaster Assistance, said via audio feed in the Pentagon that "there would probably in the vicinity of over 1,000 US armed forces on the ground supporting the efforts of Pakistan" probably by this week.
There are currently about 560 military personnel on the ground carrying out a multitude of tasks in the relief operations in Pakistan.
The American troops will be backed by NATO's reinforced engineering battalion of some 1,000 personnel and four helicopters pledged at the weekend by the alliance.
LeFever said that a mobile army surgical hospital was set for launch on Tuesday in the quake's worst hit area Muzaffarabad.
It would "conduct surgical capabilities and continue to grow to be a fully-staffed hospital supporting that area within a few days," he said.
"We expect to be conducting major surgeries along with ICU (intensive care unit) beds starting tomorrow (Tuesday) night. We are flying in another hospital from Okinawa (US military base in Japan)" to be sited at Balakot, close to the epicentre of the devastating earthquake, LeFever said.
"The United States has said it would nearly double its military forces in earthquake relief efforts in Pakistan to 1,000"
500 more of our boys to be sent there. Poor b@stards. Pray for them; Pakistan is an open sewer.
The undeclared "war" and a treacherous "ally."
While I'm sure some military personal that are real relief workers will be there and I pray for them all, something makes me believe that some will be arriving covertly to perform some seek and destroy missions.
That area is a lawless area that the general pakistani military doesn't even go near. The area is flooded with islamic militants. Target rich environment.
prisoner6
Drop off a few recon teams with the relief effort - just like in SEA.
A 5-ton truck from the 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in Miesau, Germany, rolls into the belly of a Russian AN-124 Condor cargo aircraft at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on Oct. 17. The truck is being transported as part of the disaster-relief response to the Oct. 8 earthquake in Pakistan.
A 5-ton truck from the 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in Miesau, Germany, rolls into the belly of a Russian AN-124 Condor cargo aircraft at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on Oct. 17. The truck is being transported as part of the disaster-relief response to the Oct. 8 earthquake in Pakistan.
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