USS George Washington flight deck crew.
ON BOARD THE USS GEORGE WASHINGTON – The US aircraft carrier that has played a key role in responding to victims of super typhoon Yolanda is gradually scaling down its flight missions for relief operations in Leyte and Eastern Samar, as US Marines start taking the lead role in Operation Damayan.
Two US Navy ships, the USS Ashland and USS Germantown, are now in Leyte Gulf and are carrying 900 Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) based in Okinawa, Japan. The Marines brought along with them their vehicles, small boats, heavy equipment and more importantly – landing craft. These are expected to play a key role as they can bring on to land the trucks and heavy equipment that can clear road obstructions and heavy debris.
US Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, commander of US Navy Task Force 70, told News5 “there are certain ships that are better optimized” as the Yolanda relief operations enters its third week.
Flight Deck "brown shirt" (plane captain) stands in front of an F/A18 super hornet on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington
He explained that the USS Ashland and USS Germantown, along with their Marines, trucks and small boats, are best suited for bringing supplies and materials from ship to shore. “As we move forward in disaster response and relief, there are ships that are better optimized for the next phase of the mission such as amphibious ships,” Montgomery said. He said the Marines on those two ships, plus the special small boats “can go ship to shore much more smoothly than we can and are more efficient than helicopters in delivering aid.”
The USS Ashland and USS Germantown are Whidbey Island – class dock landing ships and are equipped with landing craft, both utility and the LCACs (Landing Craft, Air Cushioned), considered a more robust platform for “ship to shore movement ability.”
These are “more suitable assets,” said US Marine Lt. Gen John Wissler, head of Joint Task Force 505, adding: “we continue to be postured to help wherever the Philippine Government and the Armed Forces of the Philippines need us, and we will remain here until our unique capabilities are no longer necessary.”
Even though there will be a gradual scaling down of the role of the USS George Washington, Admiral Montgomery assures Filipinos they will continue to support relief operations – including airlift of relief supplies using US Navy MH60 Seahawk helicopters and US Marine Corps’ MV22 Ospreys.
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“What happens is each morning, we work together on a prioritized list of where the assets should go and then that gets modified throughout the day, so it’s a constant – what I call an iterative process between the civil - military leadership and our air controllers to make sure we serve the most needy demands,” Montgomery told News5.
“I will stay on station until my JTF (Joint Task Force) commander tells me to be here.”
The USS George Washington, along with its 10 other ships, arrived off the coast of Eastern Samar on November 14, 2013. The aircraft carrier was in Hong Kong and its officers and men were on R & R when the order came for them to immediately deploy to the Philippines after super typhoon Yolanda hit.
US Navy LTJG Derrick Ingle said they posted the recall order on the USS George Washington’s Facebook page. “We got all 5,500 crew on board and prepared to sail in 16 hours. And 48 hours later, we were in the Philippines,” Ingle said.
“We were on the scene pretty fast for a naval task force of this size,” Admiral Montgomery noted.
Missions: airlift relief to isolated spots, produce drinking water
The primary missions of the USS George Washington when it got on station: airlift relief supplies especially to airports in the affected areas as well as isolated areas, serve as a refueling point for the MV22 Ospreys and produce much needed drinking water.
US Navy MH60 Seahawk, call sign Hunter 621, lands on the
deck of the USS George Washington after a relief supply mission.
The nuclear-powered USS George Washington’s desalinization plan can produce more than 400,000 gallons of fresh water from sea water a day. “We don’t need all of that,” Admiral Montgomery noted as he pointed out the ship’s crew came up “with a contraption – called the Octopus – what could pipe in and simultaneously fill up 5 to 10 gallon tanks.” It took the ship’s engineers nine hours to come up with the “Octopus” which was made out of pipes and valves.
Since water supply in the affected areas has stabilized, Admiral Montgomery said “the water mission is being transitioned out because water from the USS George Washington is no longer required.”
To date, the USS George Washington carrier strike group was able to provide more than 335,000 liters of water, airlift over 36,000 kilos of food and supplies, deliver over 10,000 tons of shelter as well as airlift over 500 persons to either the Tacloban City or Guiuan hubs.
US Navy Capt. Gregory Fenton, the carrier’s commanding officer, gives a daily update to his crew over the ship’s public address system, such as the delivery of supplies using the Philippine government’s hub and spoke system – referring to the disaster relief hubs of Tacloban, Guiuan and Ormoc.
“Over the past several days, you have done a great job here on the ship of producing portable water, loading it up onto collapsible containers and then putting it in helicopters for shipment to shore. That effort is ramping down as the ability to produce clean potable water ashore has essentially caught up to the demand – that is a good sign for all of us,” Fenton said.
As a refueling point, the USS George Washington strategically positioned itself off the coast of Eastern Samar to enable the Ospreys to fly more missions throughout the day. The Ospreys, which can carry more supplies than the Seahawks, shuttled between Tacloban and Guiuan.
USS George Washington flight deck crew unload relief
supplies from the C2A Greyhound. FA18 hornets are parked on the forward part of
the flight deck
‘Unconventional’ work for Seahawks
As for the helicopter airlift operations, Lt. Ingle cited that what the Seahawk pilots are doing are “pretty unconventional.” “We didn’t anticipate this-- some of the helicopters are landing in someone’s backyard,” he added.
Admiral Montgomery was asked if the swift response and massive presence of the US carrier strike group in the Philippines was meant to show other countries, especially China, Washington’s commitment to the Asia-Pacific region.
His response: “The United States is a Pacific Nation, We are a maritime nation,” as he stressed that Operation Damayan “is the United States’ commitment to its partner, The Philippines, not as a response to a third party.”
The USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group is the US Navy’s only permanently forward deployed strike group and is based in the Asia-Pacific region.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/75388/aid-relay--uss-george-washington-scaling-down-operations-us-marines-to-take-over
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