Posted on 01/13/2010 11:28:13 AM PST by GATOR NAVY
NORFOLK
Thousands of Hampton Roads sailors received orders this morning to prepare to deploy to Haiti as part of a massive U.S. effort to deliver humanitarian assistance in the wake of Tuesday’s devastating earthquake.
At least four Norfolk-based ships are getting ready to leave for the impoverished country, said Ted Brown, a spokesman with Norfolk’s Fleet Forces Command. The amphibious assault ship Bataan, the guided missile cruiser Normandy and the dock landing ships Fort McHenry and Carter Hall will likely leave port by Friday, the Navy said.
Expeditionary forces based at the Little Creek campus of the Joint Expeditionary Base also are preparing to deploy, Brown said.
Additional Navy ships that will deliver humanitarian assistance include the frigate Underwood, based in Mayport, Fla., and the hospital ship Comfort, homeported in Baltimore.
The San Diego-based aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, which left Norfolk on Tuesday after finishing its midlife overhaul, has been redirected to load equipment and supplies to assist in the recovery, Brown said.
Several U.S. Coast Guard ships also have been deployed to the area, including the Portsmouth-based cutter Forward, which arrived in Haiti early this morning, said Senior Chief Petty Officer Steve Carleton. The Coast Guard’s first order of business will be to assess whether main ports near Port-au-Prince are clear to receive ships carrying aid, Carleton said.
Can't see that the port could be in much worse condition than it already was unless tremendous improvements were made since 2005 when the ship I was on at the time went there. These guys have their work cut out for them.
Indeed they do. I can just see them being swarmed by people who want to get off the island; hampering their efforts to assess the Port facilties...
The United States, as always, is among the first to offer aid. It will be interesting to watch who else contributes - and how much.
Is the carrier a nuke? If it is, it could light up the whole island.
Why don’t we just annex the place, half their people are already here and we pump in bucks every year when a hurricane gets within 50 miles of the place.
Now that the demo is done just bulldoze the rest and start building resorts. It would give the people meaningful jobs and the Canadians a new place to go in the winter
USN has NO non-nuke Carriers in service. And my Big Brother is in the CoastGuard at Norfolk, Now I wonder if he got pulled and deployed to Haiti. Hope the Sailors stay safe. Dangerous world when all facilities fall down.
We have learned our lesson. Remember the sunami in Asia and all the flak we took for waiting days to send aid. I think after that we will always jump on it so we don’t get that flak again.
Actually Kitty Hawk is still active until 31 January 2010. Splittin hairs I know :)
My BIL is on the Vinson. He's been away from his family in SD for over a year...this will delay his return.
Another Haitian Crime Wave headed for US again.
Sounds like a good plan to me. The place is a cesspool.
I live in Miami.
The Haitians are by-and-large extremely family oriented, law abiding residents (there are always exceptions to all, even you and me)
The problems here are not mostly caused by the Haitians, but by their brothers who grew up under the past several decades of welfare.
We should make it a Commonwealth of the USA. Let them elect their leaders as we watch to make sure the elections are fair. We could send aid but also re-build their infra-structure and turn it into a tourist destination. They could provide cheap labor for factories—maybe build cars there or other things. We could plant some trees and set up universities to offer medical degrees.
What I find most interesting is that no-one it talking a word about the Dominican Republic on the other side of the island.
It’s only 25 miles to the Dominican Border
My wife works for an “international agency” in the Caribbean and Latin America. She has been many times to both countries (Haiti and Dominican Republic) and the difference when you cross the border is like night and day. The earthquake was felt in the Dominican Republic with some damage, but I suspect the real problem relates to a similar one asked after Katrina: “Why did Mississippi handle Katrina much better than New Orleans?”
(This does not have to do with race, but with the fact that Haiti’s only viable industry these days is international aid.)
I believe WASP class are steam powered (non-nuclear)?
That’s because the Dominican Republic is a capitalist representative democracy.
Your post implies that there is a power distribution infrastructure in Haiti. The power from a CVN would set the nearest substation on fire, and that’s about it.
I think we should bring in some Cubans to teach them how to build powered rafts out of the cars on the island and let them float to New Orleans. While that’s going on, bulldoze everything left in that hellhole, then give the land to the Dominican Republic afterwards.
The Haitians will fit right in their new city, and we can rename the Saints the “New Orleans Necklaces”.
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