USS Lincoln Now In Place Off Indonesia

[Navy6064]

USS Lincoln Now In Place Off Indonesia
HeraldNet
December 31, 2004

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The Everett-based aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its strike group is now in place off Indonesia, and military officials said that the amphibious Bonhomme Richard Marine Expeditionary Strike Group would reach its destination off the Sri Lankan coast within a week.

The first of many Air Force C-130 cargo planes has landed in Indonesia with a load of blankets, plastic sheeting and medicines.

As the death toll from southern Asia's deadly earthquake and tsunami waves soared Thursday, Washington put long-standing concerns over politics and human rights violations in Indonesia aside and mobilized its military for what promises to be a complex relief mission.

Five ships from the Lincoln's group were deployed off Sumatra, the worst hit area, joint chiefs of staff Lt. Gen. James Conway said.

Nine P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft, including some based at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, Japan, have also been deployed, he said.




Six C-130 Cargo planes based out of Japan will be diverted to Thailand to join in the operation, the Air Force said.

Charles Silver, spokesman at the U.S. Embassy said the first U.S. cargo plane, a C-130 flying out of Kadena, Japan, touched down in the Sumatran city of Medan Thursday with a load of relief supplies and body bags for the estimated 80,000 dead in this country alone.

Along with the airport at Medan, a Thai navy air base used by U.S. B-52 bombers during the Vietnam War is turning into a hub for the U.S. military-led relief effort, which will also include humanitarian operations for Sri Lanka and India.

In Sri Lanka, the island nation off the southern tip of India, 26 medical specialists from the Navy, Marines, Air Force and Army arrived Thursday to help with efforts to prevent outbreaks of disease in crowded refugee centers.