A season of giving

On Dec. 26, southeast Asia experienced one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history as a massive earthquake spawned a far-ranging tsunami tidal surge that caused the death of more than 150,000 people and displaced an additional 1.5 million.

The USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), on the Navy's first Fleet Response Plan (FRP) surge deployment to the western Pacific, was in the "right place at the right time."

Steaming rapidly from Hong Kong, the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group (ALCSG), composed of the carrier, the USS Shiloh (CG 67), USS Shoup (DDG 86), USS Benfold (DDG 65), and USNS Rainier (TAOE 7), was the first U.S. presence in the area, lending immediate logistics assistance to the residents of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia.

Since arriving on-station on New Years Day (Dec. 31 in the United States), the ALCSG has been involved in transporting food, water, medical supplies and medical teams to remote areas on the west coast of Aceh--the epicenter of the disaster and the region of the world most devastated by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. As the SH-60B helicopters from HSL-47 and the SH-60F and HH-60H helicopters from HS2, both stationed out of NAS North Island, deliver much-needed relief supplies, they are returning with critically injured Indonesians from isolated areas that are being treated in the surviving hospitals of Banda Aceh.

The ALCSG is also conducting much-needed damage assessment flights, assisting various NGO's in their humanitarian mission, and heading the rapidly expanding international military team that is assembling to assist the Indonesian government in the distribution of aid.

The team of Supply Corps officers and enlisted ratings within the ALCSG have been heavily involved in operations ashore and afloat, assisting in logistics planning with Joint Task Force 536 in Uhtapao, Thailand, building hundreds of box-lunches for relief workers, manually moving material from trucks to helos in Banda Aceh, expediting relief supplies, coordinating logistics with the Strike Group and other Navy elements, and helping distribute potable water.

It is truly "One Team, One Focus."

Commander David Meyers, SC, USN, Supply Officer aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72)

COPYRIGHT 2005 U.S. Department of the Navy, Supply Systems Command
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group