Be warned this will P--- you off 
Ed Stanton is the pen name of a career U.S. Navy officer currently serving
with the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group.
Guest Column: No Relief in Sight for the Lincoln
By Ed Stanton
It has been three weeks since my ship, the USS Abraham Lincoln, arrived off
the Sumatran coast to aid the hundreds of thousands of victims of the Dec.
26 tsunami that ravaged their coastline. I'd like to say that this has been
a rewarding experience for us, but it has not: Instead, it has been a
frustrating and needlessly dangerous exercise made even more difficult by
the Indonesian government and a traveling circus of so-called aid workers
who have invaded our spaces.
What really irritated me was a scene I witnessed in the Lincoln's wardroom
a few days ago. I went in for breakfast as I usually do, expecting to see
the usual crowd of ship's company officers in khakis and air wing aviators
in flight suits, drinking coffee and exchanging rumors about when our
ongoing humanitarian mission in Sumatra is going to end.
What I saw instead was a mob of civilians sitting around like they owned
the place. They wore various colored vests with logos on the back
including Save The Children, World Health Organization and the dreaded baby
blue vest of the United Nations. Mixed in with this crowd were a bunch of
reporters, cameramen and Indonesian military officers in uniform. They all
carried cameras, sunglasses and fanny packs like tourists on their way to
Disneyland.
My warship had been transformed into a floating hotel for a bunch of
trifling do-gooders overnight.
As I went through the breakfast line, I overheard one of the U.N.
strap-hangers, a longhaired guy with a beard, make a sarcastic comment to
one of our food servers. He said something along the lines of "Nice china,
really makes me feel special," in reference to the fact that we were eating
off of paper plates that day. It was all I could do to keep from jerking
him off his feet and choking him, because I knew that the reason we were
eating off paper plates was to save dishwashing water so that we would have
more water to send ashore and save lives. That plus the fact that he had no
business being there in the first place.
My attitude towards these unwanted no-loads grew steadily worse that day as
I learned more from one of our junior officers who was assigned to escort a
group of them. It turns out that they had come to Indonesia to "assess the
damage" from the Dec. 26 tsunami.
Well, they could have turned on any TV in the world and seen that the
damage was total devastation. When they got to Sumatra with no plan, no
logistics support and no five-star hotels to stay in, they threw themselves
on the mercy of the U.S. Navy, which, unfortunately, took them in. I guess
our senior brass was hoping for some good PR since this was about the time
that the U.N. was calling the United States "stingy" with our relief
donations.
As a result of having to host these people, our severely over-tasked SH-60
Seahawk helos, which were carrying tons of food and water every day to the
most inaccessible places in and around Banda Aceh, are now used in great
part to ferry these "relief workers" from place to place every day and
bring them back to their guest bedrooms on the Lincoln at night. Despite
their avowed dedication to helping the victims, these relief workers will
not spend the night in-country, and have made us their guardians by
default.
When our wardroom treasurer approached the leader of the relief group and
asked him who was paying the mess bill for all the meals they ate, the
fellow replied, "We aren't paying, you can try to bill the U.N. if you want
to."
In addition to the relief workers, we routinely get tasked with hauling
around reporters and various low-level "VIPs," which further wastes
valuable helo lift that could be used to carry supplies. We had to dedicate
two helos and a C-2 cargo plane for America-hater Dan Rather and his
entourage of door holders and briefcase carriers from CBS News. Another
camera crew was from MTV. I doubt if we'll get any good PR from them, since
the cable channel is banned in Muslim countries. We also had to dedicate a
helo and crew to fly around the vice mayor of Phoenix, Ariz., one day.
Everyone wants in on the action.
As for the Indonesian officers, while their job is apparently to encourage
our leaving as soon as possible, all they seem to do in the meantime is
smoke cigarettes. They want our money and our help but they don't want
their population to see that Americans are doing far more for them in two
weeks than their own government has ever done or will ever do for them.
To add a kick in the face to the USA and the Lincoln, the Indonesian
government announced it would not allow us to use their airspace for
routine training and flight proficiency operations while we are saving the
lives of their people, some of whom are wearing Osama bin Ladin T-shirts as
they grab at our food and water. The ship has to steam out into
international waters to launch and recover jets, which makes our helos have
to fly longer distances and burn more fuel.
What is even worse than trying to help people who totally reject everything
we stand for is that our combat readiness has suffered for it.
An aircraft carrier is an instrument of national policy and the big stick
she carries is her air wing. An air wing has a set of very demanding skills
and they are highly perishable. We train hard every day at sea to conduct
actual air strikes, air defense, maritime surveillance, close air support
and many other missions - not to mention taking off and landing on a ship
at sea.
Our safety regulations state that if a pilot does not get a night carrier
landing every seven days, he has to be re-qualified to land on the ship.
Today we have pilots who have now been over 25 days without a trap due to
being unable to use Indonesian airspace to train. Normally it is when we
are at sea that our readiness is at its very peak. Thanks to the Indonesian
government, we have to waive our own safety rules just to get our pilots
off the deck.
In other words, the longer we stay here helping these people, the more
dangerous it gets for us to operate. We have already lost one helicopter,
which crashed in Banda Aceh while taking sailors ashore to unload supplies
from the C-130s. There were no relief workers on that one.
I'm all for helping the less fortunate, but it is time to give this mission
to somebody other than the U.S. Navy. Our ship was supposed to be home on
Feb. 3 and now we have no idea how long we will be here. American taxpayers
are spending millions per day to keep this ship at sea and getting no
training value out of it. As a result, we will come home in a lower state
of readiness than when we left due to the lack of flying while supporting
the tsunami relief effort.
I hope we get some good PR in the Muslim world out of it. After all, this
is Americans saving the lives of Muslims. I have my doubts.
Ed Stanton is the pen name of a career U.S. Navy officer currently serving
with the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group.
Guest Column: No Relief in Sight for the Lincoln
By Ed Stanton
It has been three weeks since my ship, the USS Abraham Lincoln, arrived off
the Sumatran coast to aid the hundreds of thousands of victims of the Dec.
26 tsunami that ravaged their coastline. I'd like to say that this has been
a rewarding experience for us, but it has not: Instead, it has been a
frustrating and needlessly dangerous exercise made even more difficult by
the Indonesian government and a traveling circus of so-called aid workers
who have invaded our spaces.
What really irritated me was a scene I witnessed in the Lincoln's wardroom
a few days ago. I went in for breakfast as I usually do, expecting to see
the usual crowd of ship's company officers in khakis and air wing aviators
in flight suits, drinking coffee and exchanging rumors about when our
ongoing humanitarian mission in Sumatra is going to end.
What I saw instead was a mob of civilians sitting around like they owned
the place. They wore various colored vests with logos on the back
including Save The Children, World Health Organization and the dreaded baby
blue vest of the United Nations. Mixed in with this crowd were a bunch of
reporters, cameramen and Indonesian military officers in uniform. They all
carried cameras, sunglasses and fanny packs like tourists on their way to
Disneyland.
My warship had been transformed into a floating hotel for a bunch of
trifling do-gooders overnight.
As I went through the breakfast line, I overheard one of the U.N.
strap-hangers, a longhaired guy with a beard, make a sarcastic comment to
one of our food servers. He said something along the lines of "Nice china,
really makes me feel special," in reference to the fact that we were eating
off of paper plates that day. It was all I could do to keep from jerking
him off his feet and choking him, because I knew that the reason we were
eating off paper plates was to save dishwashing water so that we would have
more water to send ashore and save lives. That plus the fact that he had no
business being there in the first place.
My attitude towards these unwanted no-loads grew steadily worse that day as
I learned more from one of our junior officers who was assigned to escort a
group of them. It turns out that they had come to Indonesia to "assess the
damage" from the Dec. 26 tsunami.
Well, they could have turned on any TV in the world and seen that the
damage was total devastation. When they got to Sumatra with no plan, no
logistics support and no five-star hotels to stay in, they threw themselves
on the mercy of the U.S. Navy, which, unfortunately, took them in. I guess
our senior brass was hoping for some good PR since this was about the time
that the U.N. was calling the United States "stingy" with our relief
donations.
As a result of having to host these people, our severely over-tasked SH-60
Seahawk helos, which were carrying tons of food and water every day to the
most inaccessible places in and around Banda Aceh, are now used in great
part to ferry these "relief workers" from place to place every day and
bring them back to their guest bedrooms on the Lincoln at night. Despite
their avowed dedication to helping the victims, these relief workers will
not spend the night in-country, and have made us their guardians by
default.
When our wardroom treasurer approached the leader of the relief group and
asked him who was paying the mess bill for all the meals they ate, the
fellow replied, "We aren't paying, you can try to bill the U.N. if you want
to."
In addition to the relief workers, we routinely get tasked with hauling
around reporters and various low-level "VIPs," which further wastes
valuable helo lift that could be used to carry supplies. We had to dedicate
two helos and a C-2 cargo plane for America-hater Dan Rather and his
entourage of door holders and briefcase carriers from CBS News. Another
camera crew was from MTV. I doubt if we'll get any good PR from them, since
the cable channel is banned in Muslim countries. We also had to dedicate a
helo and crew to fly around the vice mayor of Phoenix, Ariz., one day.
Everyone wants in on the action.
As for the Indonesian officers, while their job is apparently to encourage
our leaving as soon as possible, all they seem to do in the meantime is
smoke cigarettes. They want our money and our help but they don't want
their population to see that Americans are doing far more for them in two
weeks than their own government has ever done or will ever do for them.
To add a kick in the face to the USA and the Lincoln, the Indonesian
government announced it would not allow us to use their airspace for
routine training and flight proficiency operations while we are saving the
lives of their people, some of whom are wearing Osama bin Ladin T-shirts as
they grab at our food and water. The ship has to steam out into
international waters to launch and recover jets, which makes our helos have
to fly longer distances and burn more fuel.
What is even worse than trying to help people who totally reject everything
we stand for is that our combat readiness has suffered for it.
An aircraft carrier is an instrument of national policy and the big stick
she carries is her air wing. An air wing has a set of very demanding skills
and they are highly perishable. We train hard every day at sea to conduct
actual air strikes, air defense, maritime surveillance, close air support
and many other missions - not to mention taking off and landing on a ship
at sea.
Our safety regulations state that if a pilot does not get a night carrier
landing every seven days, he has to be re-qualified to land on the ship.
Today we have pilots who have now been over 25 days without a trap due to
being unable to use Indonesian airspace to train. Normally it is when we
are at sea that our readiness is at its very peak. Thanks to the Indonesian
government, we have to waive our own safety rules just to get our pilots
off the deck.
In other words, the longer we stay here helping these people, the more
dangerous it gets for us to operate. We have already lost one helicopter,
which crashed in Banda Aceh while taking sailors ashore to unload supplies
from the C-130s. There were no relief workers on that one.
I'm all for helping the less fortunate, but it is time to give this mission
to somebody other than the U.S. Navy. Our ship was supposed to be home on
Feb. 3 and now we have no idea how long we will be here. American taxpayers
are spending millions per day to keep this ship at sea and getting no
training value out of it. As a result, we will come home in a lower state
of readiness than when we left due to the lack of flying while supporting
the tsunami relief effort.
I hope we get some good PR in the Muslim world out of it. After all, this
is Americans saving the lives of Muslims. I have my doubts.