OUA: Indonesia
Compiled by Asia-Pacific Defense FORUM Staff

The U.S. Military . . . has been the backbone of the logistical operations providing assistance to all afflicted after the [tsunami] disaster. We’d like to pay tribute to the soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen of the U.S. forces deployed in Aceh throughout the relief effort.

Juwono Sudarsono
Indonesia
Minister of Defense

Distribution of relief supplies to tsunami victims was the primary requirement for the Combined Support Group (CSG) in hardest-hit Indonesia. There, the CSG supported the United Nation’s Interagency Rapid Health Assessment Team; evacuated injured victims; provided engineering assessments on airfields, ports, landing zones, infrastructure, and damaged structures; built a warehouse; and repaired generators, hospital equipment, and critical facilities.

USS Abraham Lincoln: The “Gray Angel”
Almost immediately after the tsunami struck, the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) Carrier Strike Group began making its way from Hong Kong to the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, where the ships, in coordination with the Indonesian government, would focus on relief efforts with Indonesian forces, other countries’ forces, and international agencies in the Banda Aceh region. The ships associated with the carrier strike group – the cruiser USS Shiloh (CG 67), destroyers USS Benfold (DDG 65) and USS Shoup (DDG 86), and the fast combat support ship USNS Rainier (T-AOE 7) – took positions off the island of Sumatra with their helicopters that became critical to the relief effort. The carrier group also housed and transported international relief workers.

Upon arriving off the coast of Sumatra on 1 January 2005, sailors from the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group began working around the clock to deliver relief supplies ashore to the tsunami victims. The strike group’s Commander, U.S. Navy Rear Adm. William Douglas Crowder, said the volunteer spirit aboard the ship was hard to deny. Earlier he told reporters, “I’ve got about 6,500 sailors in the strike group, and as I was walking around the ship, they were tugging at my sleeves and saying, ‘Admiral, I want to volunteer to help.’”

Lincoln sailors designed a potable water manifold to help bring fresh water to tsunami-stricken villages in Sumatra. They constructed a pipe with multiple spigots and connections to the ship’s water-main system. Once the crew turned on the faucets and manned the assembly line, the water-supply line was ready to transfer. The system began shipping the much-needed freshwater by 4 January 2005. “We’ve sent 5,068 gallons [19,184 liters] of water in two days,” said U.S. Navy Ens. Marcus Machart. “As long as there is any room on any helicopter going ashore, that space will have a water container in it. It took our Reactor Department volunteers around 45 minutes to fill and stack 800 five-gallon [19-liter] containers. We’re only limited by the number of containers we have and the weight limit the helicopter can carry.”

Helicopter Missions
Using the 17 helicopters on board the Lincoln carrier group ships, U.S. Navy aircrews flew 1,747 relief missions. The crews loaded the helicopters with food, medicine, and water to take to the victims. The helicopters also flew more than 3,000 passengers, including international relief workers who stayed aboard ship, to remote villages.

“We’ve been averaging 60 hours of flight time a day, which is an exorbitant amount of time compared to what we usually fly,” said U.S. Navy Aviation Warfare Systems Operator First Class (AW1) Joseph Sabia. “We modified our aircraft by taking out our sonobuoy launchers and all of our seats except one to get more room,” he added.

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