Archive for January, 2010
Stormy times ahead for Northrop Grumman’s Gulf Shipyards and Navy shipbuilding.
First, news broke today that LPD-17 and LPD-21 are–even though they’re desperately needed for Haiti service–now ”sidelined,” according to Insidedefense.com.
The USS New York, less than a month from commissioning, has a bent crankshaft. Until that crankshaft is repaired LPD-21 will only be able to use three of four engines. The ship won’t be able to get underway until next month because two engines need to be repaired.
No news yet on the prognosis for LPD-17. It is now in a Virginia shipyard.
LPD 19 and 20 suffered oil contamination problems (a potential precursor to bearing wear and crankshaft issues) earlier, but the Navy seems confident they’re OK for now. LPD-18 seems OK.
What are we going to do with the LPD-17 program? Things were looking up. Last year, Undersecretary of the Navy Robert Work, in his 2009 Naval White Paper, wrote ”after a troubled start, the LPD-17 program appears to have finally found its sea legs (pg 78).” Just how close-held was this issue? And did the failure to promptly disseminate news of LPD-17 problems derail the promulgation of good policy?
Navy Times reports even more bad tidings:
“Inspectors are rechecking every pipe weld aboard every ship built in the last several years at Avondale, La., or Pascagoula, Miss., including destroyers and small- and big-deck amphibs, after discovering so many problems that all pipe welders and Navy inspectors at both yards had to be decertified and then recertified to work on ships.”
Welding issues appear to plague many vessels built at the Gulf shipyards. DDGs, LHD-8, every LPD…(No news yet on the Legend Class Coast Guard Cutters) suffer from about a 10-15 percent incidence of thin welds. We’ll find out more over the coming weeks.
So, in short, we have a serious problem in shipbuilding (and shipbuilding oversight) in the Gulf, and a potentially serious design problem with the LPD-17s engines. I’d like to see some accountability here, but, in all honesty, I expect the folks who approved the LPD-17 engine designs will probably get some kind of award for helping create a new means to discover the bad welds…
At least we can all sit back and watch as different parts of the navy’s shipbuilding community desperately try to shift the blame for this current fiasco onto somebody else.
With this, the LCS-1 problems and the EB sub welding issues, it’s little wonder SECDEF Gates kept the Navy from testifying at the Jan 20 House Armed Services Committee meeting on Naval Force Structure!
For those who don’t know, HASC’s Seapower and Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee Chairman Gene Taylor’s primary constituency base is from the Northrop Grumman Gulf Shipyards, so we can, as this story evolves, expect some fireworks as Congressman Taylor scrambles to protect his parochial interests.
Like any evolving story, it’ll take time to get all the facts. Consider this merely a means to start a discussion…
Posted by Defense Springboard in Coast Guard, Navy | read comments (34)
I wrote the following in the February 2008 edition of Proceedings (pre-blog)….
Nobody asked me, but…
By Lieutenant Jim Dolbow, U.S. Coast Guard Reserve
Let’s Have a Fleet of 15 Hospital Ships
Each one of the Department of Defense’s five regional combatant commands should have three hospital ships permanently assigned to their respective areas of responsibility. Why so many, you ask?
It’s so simple that it can be summed up in two words: medical diplomacy. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson (who coined that term) was right on target when he said, “medical diplomacy is the winning of hearts and minds of people in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and elsewhere by exporting medical care, expertise, and personnel to help those who need it most.” Moreover, according to Thompson, “What better way to knock down the hatred, the barriers of ethnic and religious groups that are afraid of America, and hate America, than to offer good medical policy and good health to these countries?”
Between Secretary Thompson’s wisdom and the fact that the Navy’s two hospital ships, USNS Comfort (T-AH-20) and Mercy (T-AH-19), have proved themselves to be outstanding ambassadors of good will during their recent deployments, I say the Navy should go to the Office of Management and Budget and Capitol Hill and ask for the funds to begin laying the keels for an additional 13 hospital ships. The pros strongly outweigh the cons on this issue. For example:
•It would be a great boon for the shipbuilding industry that so desperately needs some work to remain afloat;
•There’s no shortage of hearts and minds to win in any of the regional combatant commands;
•Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen said when he was CNO that he’d hand a part of his budget to the State Department “in a heartbeat,” assuming it was spent in the right place. These additional platforms in a medical diplomacy role would remedy the need to transfer funds from DOD to bolster the diplomacy efforts of the State Department;
• The wrath of Mother Nature is not projected by the experts to lessen any time soon. Additional hospital ships would speed up the U.S. response to natural disasters around the globe, saving lives in the process. Gone would be the lengthy transit times from San Diego or Baltimore. (emphasis added)
Unfortunately, the same people who several years ago wanted to decommission both the Mercy and the Comfort have now been diagnosed with advanced bureaucratic arteriosclerosis. Besides needing some follow-up care after reading this article, they will most likely use some red herrings to argue against expanding the size of the Navy’s hospital fleet, including: money is tight, other assets could perform the same mission, and there is not enough personnel to sail them. To borrow a line from U.S. Army Brigadier General Anthony G. McAuliffe of Bastogne fame, I say “Nuts.”
First, for less than one day’s cost of the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, a tanker could be built and equipped to be a state-of-the-art floating medical facility. The potential dividends would be similar to the huge favorable swing in public opinion enjoyed by the United States after the Mercy’s 2005 humanitarian mission. According to Kenneth Ballen of Terror Free Tomorrow, “nationwide polls of Indonesia and Bangladesh conducted in August 2006, following the Mercy’s visit, suggest that a remarkable 85 percent of Indonesians and 95 percent of the people of Bangladesh were favorable to the Mercy’s mission.” No small feat indeed.
Second, manning the ships will not be a problem given proper recruitment and retention efforts. The new ships could sail with an expanded hybrid crew of civilian mariners, joint forces and coalition medical personnel, non-governmental organizations, and civilian volunteers to include retired military personnel. Also, instead of reducing the Navy’s end-strength as currently envisioned, some Sailors could be retrained as corpsmen. Contractors could also be hired. Headhunters could recruit plenty of doctors that would want to serve their country while at the same time getting a reprieve from insurance paperwork, TRICARE, and Medicare, etc.
“Let’s roll” by building a fleet of 15 hospital ships. We have some hearts and minds to win.
A late night rumination…
I was recently in Philadelphia, attending (of all things) a West Point Society meeting. The meeting was held at a restaurant on the water near the SS United States, the world’s fastest cruise liner, maintaining 30 knots as it regularly cruised across the Atlantic (38 knots max). Moreover, it could hold 1,900+ passengers during its speedy journey. And it’s for sale.
Fast ship + capacity to hold large amounts of people = super-expeditious hospital ship? Acquiring the SS United States and converting it to a hospital ship would give the Navy and even greater ability to rapidly respond to humanitarian crises. Thoughts?
One little-noticed facet of America’s Haiti-bound expeditionary aid effort is the SS Petersburg (T-AOT 9101), a 45-year old vessel that is, right now, tied to a Bay Area pier, preparing to deploy. Why is this Ready Reserve Force asset, one that needs ten days to get going–and one of the furthest-flung pieces of equipment the United States has called into service for Haiti relief–getting activated? Isn’t it odd the military reached all the way to an Alameda pier for a tired old tanker–a tanker that makes only about 15 knots?
Well, it’s because the SS Petersburg is much more than a tanker! The SS Petersburg is a tanker built around an offshore petroleum discharge system (OPDS), and, as such, the ship is one of the only available government assets that can, while anchored offshore, receive and pump a lot of fuel ashore. OPDS is a key piece of expeditionary tech–those trucks, amphibious armored vehicles and generators have a hard time running without fuel.
In Haiti, there’s only a few weeks supply of fuel available–and we’re not done surveying Haiti’s fuel receiving terminals. Those terminals may be inaccessible for some time. Though accounts vary, the Wall Street Journal says the fuel terminals are damaged:
Two other Haitian terminals used to bring in fuel have also been heavily damaged, said Mr. Villard.
The U.S. military is also conducting an assessment of the port of Varreux, just to the north of Port-au-Prince’s main port, as a possible place to begin pumping fuel. Gen. Allyn said he expected to resume fuel deliveries there “in the very near future,” though the assessment will take another day or two.
Without receiving terminals, the fuel has to come in via road–from harbors elsewhere in Haiti or the Dominican Republic. But with the roads and weak harbor infrastructure likely to be clogged, the SS Petersburg may still be useful. From Navytimes:
“Within 48 hours of arrival on station, [Petersburg can begin] pumping 1.2 million gallons per day from up to four miles off shore and at water depths down to 200 feet. If the ship is moored within two nautical miles of the shore, two different products may be pumped simultaneously through two separate conduits,” according to information from MarAd.
Fuel supply is critical for any amphibious venture–and the advantage of having a means to receive refined fuel without need of port facilities is, these days, a tactical necessity.
Look to history–The advance from the World War II D-Day beachheads was supported by one of the first undersea pipelines, the aptly-named Operation PLUTO, or “Pipe-Lines Under the Ocean.” It was operational by August 1944, sparing space in the wrecked Cherbourg Harbor for other vital cargoes.
The SS Petersburg, when it arrives at Haiti, may help alleviate pressure on the feeble, crowded ports. It may allow those working to clear blocked harbor channels and open pier access to focus on insuring that traditional dry cargoes can get access to shore. (The Marines have an expeditionary bulk-liquid transfer system, but their ability to utilize that system at Haiti may be somewhat limited).
OPDS is not just for expeditionary use, either. For established bases like Guam, Diego Garcia or, oh, Ascension Island, damage to established fuel receiving infrastructure would rapidly degrade their inherent military value.
Interestingly enough, OPDS platforms only really emerged as a defense asset in the eighties and nineties:
“…the prototype SS Potomac (OPDS-1 built in 1957 converted to OPDS in 1985); SS American Osprey (OPDS-2 built 1958 converted 1988); SS Chesapeake (OPDS-3 built 1963 converted 1991); SS Petersburg (OPDS-4 built 1963 converted 1994); and, SS Mount Washington (OPDS-5 built 1963 converted 1995).”
What is rather odd is that the United States now only has three of these vessels–well, technically, two. The SS Petersburg’s sister, the Chesapeake (T-AOT 5084), is, after serving in the Gulf Region, a hulk, mouldering away in the National Defense Reserve Fleet over in Beaumont, Texas–in “logistic support” status. That means the poor SS Chesapeake is being stripped to keep the SS Petersburg operational (The SS Mount Washington is awaiting disposal in Suisun Bay).
The second, MV Vice Adm. K.R. Wheeler (T-AG 5001), is a brand-new charter vessel:
Wheeler’s improved capabilities include the ability to pump 500,000 gallons more fuel per day, operate in more difficult environmental conditions including surface currents of up to three knots and winds of up to 40 knots, and install pipe over an ocean bottom of rock and shell in addition to mud, sand and coral.
Wheeler also requires far fewer people to deploy its distribution system than its predecessors, which required about 200 people. Wheeler’s crew is made up of 24 civilians working for private companies under contract to MSC – 16 civilian mariners operate and navigate the ship, and eight systems operators, six of whom join the ship only during fueling evolutions, operate and deploy the distribution system.
But the Wheeler, well, she’s busy doing serving the national interest–someplace else. Part of the Guam-based Maritime Prepositioning Ship Squadron Three, the ship was last seen operating off Korea (August-September 2009), training to provide refined fuel to fuel-hungry units ashore.
Here’s a great MSC video of the OPDS in action–a wonderful overview of what OPDS offers.
Given the importance of fuel for disasters and other contingencies, I’m rather shocked that the U.S. only maintains two of these vessels–and that nobody out there in the private sector seems to have made a similar system available for use. In any island, isolated region–or devastated urban area–fuel access is a force multiplier. And for any military service thinking about expeditionary ventures, a OPDS is critical–particularly when mission requirements demand an efficient means to engage and leverage civilian assets. These civ-mil “connectors” are too few and far between.
The OPDS is a critical and un-sung piece of the disaster-response tool kit. If American policymakers think missions like the Haiti disaster response will become a routine task for America’s “Global Force For Good,” then the U.S. needs a few more nifty offshore petroleum pumping stations like the MV Vice Adm. K.R. Wheeler.
Posted by Defense Springboard in Homeland Security, Marine Corps, Navy, Soft Power | read comments (10)
This is going to be good. We have Galrahn, Maggie, CDR Salamander, Jim Dolbow, FbL and URR all covering this event for us, The Naval Institute, which we co-host (sponsor) every year with AFCEA.
Even better, there’s a great list of panels and speakers, including: Gen Cartwright, ADM Stavridis, and Information Dissemination’s very own Bryan McGrath.
Join us at our booth for an Author Signings, Wednesday, 3 February from 4:00pm – 5:30pm
Vincent P. O’Hara, STRUGGLE FOR THE MIDDLE SEA & U.S. NAVY AGAINST THE AXIS
Norman Friedman, NETWORK-CENTRIC WARFARE & NAVAL FIREPOWER
Kit Lavell, FLYING BLACK PONIES
Thomas C. Hone and Trent Hone, BATTLE LINE
Panels include:
Panel: “Winning Wars: Did the QDR Get it Right?
Cyber Issues: What Should Be the Priorities?
What Kind of Navy Does America Need?
And a whole lot more, see the full schedule here:
Can’t be there for the event? Have a good question to ask? Leave a comment here to let us know…or look out on the blogs, follow us on Twitter (#West10) or our Facebook page
Saving the best for last, if you’re one of the cool kids who get to go, you might get this impeccably designed, handy-dandy, pocket size Field Notes notebook to write down your thoughts.
Front Cover
Inside Front Cover with pertinent coordinates, a place for your name and graph paper (that's right, graph paper!)
Back Cover with Naval Institute logo & pertinent coordinates, so you'll remember us
Yesterday, afternoon, I participated in the Department of Defense’s Bloggers Roundtable with CDR. Mark Marino, USN, Director of Nursing aboard USNS COMFORT (T-AH-20). My first question focused on NGOs.
Q: Can you tell us about the Comfort’s partnership with NGOs like Project Hope?
A: CDR. MARINO: Oh, sure. I’m happy to.
You know, we actually have a pretty long and significant history with partnering with a number of NGOs, not just Project Hope. On our last mission, in various forms or fashions, I believe we had easily probably 10 to 15 different partnerships going with a number of NGOs. And that might have been just either donated goods or the actual physical presence of personnel.
For this particular mission, we already have Project Hope personnel on board, and they are assessing how they can fit into the organizational structure and what specialty personnel, what specialty medical personnel they’re going to be able to bring. And I believe the goal is to slowly incorporate them — not slowly, actually pretty quickly, in the next seven days to two weeks – start incorporating the volunteers into the organizational structure.
We’ve also had feedback from Operation Smile, and there is an Operation Smile representative on board. You know, their mission has been traditionally to do cleft palate care to young children, but they have offered up surgeons and other staff to help care for our patients in other areas.
We have had — or we’ve had the Church of Latter-Day Saints reach out to us. They were partners with us on our last mission. They have — let’s see — orthopedic surgeons, emergency surgeons, general surgeons, pediatric, all the specialties in nursing, as well as ancillary services (and they have ?) respiratory technicians. And they are all willing to jump in, and they’ve got people standing by.
So hopefully in the next week to two weeks we will start rotating these people in. So again, we do have partners with us already, and they are assessing how they can fit into the organization, but in such short notice, we wanted to get our military folks up and running and on the ship, and get them in country as quickly as we could. And then we are now making arrangements to start that partnership with the various NGOs that’ll be joining us.
The COMFORT’s ability to forge partnerships with NGOs is one for the textbooks especially since, according to former President Bill Clinton, there are over 10,000 NGOs in Haiti.
Transcript here.
According to an email I received from PROJECT HOPE, 22 pallets of donated medical supplies, valued at $177,000, have been shipped to Haiti via COMFORT.
“Just the facts, Ma’am” – Sgt. Joe Friday….
An update from the USS Bataan’s website:
USS BATAAN, At Sea – The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHA-5) received two MEDEVAC helicopters at approximately 8:15 p.m. Jan. 19, with three injured Haitians receiving immediate medical care from the Bataan medical team.
U.S. Navy and Coast Guard search-and-rescue crews responded to two separate distress calls in the vicinity of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
An MH-60S Knighthawk from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 22 medically evacuated two patients with potentially life-threatening injuries just before a Coast Guard HH-65A Dolphin carrying a third patient arrived aboard Bataan.
FACT: This is 24 hours after arriving off of Port-au-Prince.
Meanwhile, the USNS COMFORT received their first patients while steaming enroute to Haiti according to Robert Little of The Baltimore Sun:
The Navy’s Baltimore-based hospital ship arrived close enough to Haiti to take aboard its first patients Tuesday night – providing urgent care to two severely injured quake victims transported from an aircraft carrier near Port-au-Prince.
Doctors were treating a 20-year-old man suffering from a spinal fracture and bleeding in the brain and a 6-year-old boy with a fractured pelvis.
The patients were brought aboard well before the ship reached its destination and hours after the crew had finished its latest round of training exercises.
I will let you decide.
One of two helicopters on COMFORT's flight deck. Vast majority of patients will arrive via helicopter. photo by Jim Dolbow
The COMFORT’s casualty receiving area where triage is done. Note the red flooring which makes it easy for NGO volunteers to find. photo by Jim Dolbow.
One of COMFORT's 12 operating rooms - some of the most modern in the world. photo by Jim Dolbow
Whether one is discussing the activities of the 2nd Brigade, 82 Airborne of the Army, Special Operations Group 1 of the USAF and many thousands of USAF airmen, the USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), other ships, and naval aviators of the Navy, the 22nd MEU and the Marines landing in Haiti on Tuesday, or the Guardians who were the first responders in Haiti representing the Coast Guard – the men and women on the ground in Haiti are doing an amazing job. Those men and women who train our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Guardians should take pride today because US citizens indeed take pride in their representation of us in Haiti.
With that said the leaders of the operation need to do a better job organizing, cooperating, and coordinating the response to Haiti, because every problem that pops up can be specifically defined as a leadership issue where Command, Coordination, and Cooperation of operations can be improved – and need to be improved.
Countries like France are exactly right to call US actions in Haiti as “occupation” even if it is not true, because in case you haven’t noticed, every US spokesman on TV and covered in press conferences involved in public diplomacy from the ground in Haiti wears combat boots.
Todd H. Guggisberg, Assistant Professor, Department of Logistics and Resource Operations (DLRO) US Army Command and General Staff College emailed me today with an important observation.
As a retired career Army logistics officer, I am following the events closely. Understanding what it means to feed/water/shelter 3 million people is difficult for most Americans. One of my logistics students did a quick estimate and came up with a requirement for 2,000 cargo trucks per day to supply ONE humanitarian ration to 3 million people per day….and rations are easy compared to water.
That might explain why there has been a policy change regarding the danger of airdropping relief supplies. Are things getting critical? Probably more than most Americans probably realize.
One C-17 airdrop represents ~30,000 rations (usually divided between humanitarian rations and bottled water), and we would need to conduct more than 100 C-17 airdrops per day and equally distribute those rations just to get just 1 bottle of water or 1 humanitarian ration to each of the 3 million people the UN says are in need in Haiti today. The SOUTHCOM focus to date on the one runway airfield is a distraction, by no fuzzy math is it possible for ~180 planes around the world to meet the demand of the Haiti catastrophe.
At the exact same time on Monday General Keen was telling reporters on the ground in Haiti “the only way to get anything in is through the airport”, the Dutch Navy ship HNLMS Pelikaan (A804) had arrived from Netherlands Antilles and was unloading a truck onto a pier in Port-au-Prince. Due to security problems in the port, the unloading was halted and the ship had to pull away with a hold full of aid. See the official MoD website (in Dutch) for a picture of the truck unloading. More information here and here in Dutch.
There are serious coordination issues in Haiti, and it isn’t just the US with the UN or NGOs, because we would also not appear to be coordinating with other countries responding from sea, including NATO ships! The airport will not be able to meet the demand of inbound flights no matter how excellent a job the USAF 1st SOG does. Who is coordinating the effort at sea and in the port? How is it even possible that a Dutch naval ship is the first ship to unload materials in Port-au-Prince with all those US ships working on the port facilities, and at the exact same time the General is telling reporters something completely different? Did General Keen even know the Dutch ship was there when he was talking to reporters?
Without supply from sea, it will be impossible to deliver enough supplies to meet the range of demands in Haiti. USNS 1st LT Jack Lummus (T-AK 3011) should arrive sometime on Tuesday. The ship is bringing INLS pontoons, an Army Port Opening Battalion, US AID materials, Seabee gear, combat engineers, lots of propane tanks, and 223 troops – which is combined far over capacity, but USCG gave a waiver.
The INLS pontoons take many, many hours to get completely set up and operational, but will be a game changer for logistics. Admiral Harvey did an interview with reporters today in Norfolk, and while apparently knowing about the Dutch ship, he was discussing the deployment of the USNS Sacagawea (T-AKE 2), which was due to depart Norfolk Tuesday afternoon. USNS Sacagawea (T-AKE 2) was loaded to capacity with pallets of aid, including nearly 400,000 meals-ready-to-eat and an additional 235,000 pounds of food.
USNS Sacagawea (T-AKE 2) would represent at least 13 fully loaded C-17 airdrops of rations, and that ship can do a lot more than haul food and rations.
But while the Navy is leaning well forward in support of relief operations, open up the port, and get supplies to Haiti; I still have serious questions what is going on in SOUTHCOM. Did the Reserves help load LT Jack Lummus (T-AK 3011) in Jacksonville? I am hearing they did not, rather it was a few shore guys working round the clock over the three day weekend instead… I was stunned to find out too. I know Reserves were sent to help USNS Comfort (T-AH 20). Did the Reserves forget to lean forward per instruction of the President in places other than Baltimore? Where was SOUTHCOM in coordinating the Reserves for loading?
Look, USNS 1st LT Jack Lummus (T-AK 3011) is the most important asset right now for the entire US effort in Haiti. Without INLS, there is no possible way enough food and water can be delivered to the people of Haiti. SOUTHCOM needs to fix their coordination problems – yesterday.
Media people, particularly CNN, are beginning to notice that NGOs are getting short on medical supplies. News reports claim the UN and Haitian government have put food and water ahead of medicine to help the wounded. Hospital supplies of medicine are running out. Why would the UN and Haitian government make this choice?
The only explanation is that there isn’t enough food and water to get to the people. The airport cannot move the fuel, earth moving equipment, food, water, and medicine to meet demand, so choices are being made what isn’t going to get through among the limited flights in. The choice right now is in favor of logistics and infrastructure equipment, food, and water to support the 2-3 million Haitians roaming the streets, instead of medicine for the surviving wounded in hospital camps scattered around Haiti under the care of NGOs.
Which choice would you make? Medicine for the people who are dieing, or food and water for the people who aren’t dieing, yet? Think very hard about the choices being made, because that is the unfortunate reality of the hell in Haiti right now. Anderson Cooper and others will tell people medical supplies are more important than food and water, but the seriousness of the decisions being made by the UN and Haitian government is not being examined close enough to put those complaints in context. Actually, I’m forced to guess, because Anderson Cooper and others don’t have an Obama administration representitive on the ground to ask – and if they do, I can’t name that person. That point seems lost on CNN.
Everyone should understand why the DoD is being asked to carry the load in Haiti, but it is critical you also understand why USAID or the State Department should be in charge in Haiti even though you can’t name who the top US civilian leader is in Haiti right now. The DoD budget is going to be somewhere around $700 billion with supplemental budgets in FY2011, and that gets compared to a USAID budget of $4 billion and the State Department budget of about $65 billion. Obviously the catastrophe in Haiti is beyond the means of either USAID and State to handle the problem, but does that also mean neither agency can’t afford to have a leader inside Haiti to lead the US effort?
If we want the UN and Haitian government to be in charge in Haiti, then we need a strong civilian counterpart to deal with the civilian political challenges. Bill Clinton would be great for that, but is he the political authority speaking for the Obama administration? I doubt he would say yes.
If the DoD is not the lead agency, and I do not under any circumstances believe they should be, why is the DoD being made the face of leadership in Haiti? Who and where is the Obama administration’s appointed representative? Rajiv Shah is in Washington DC, so who is running the show in Haiti? I do wonder if SOUTHCOM leaders are too buried in the internal politics of the UN and Haiti on the ground to support the relief efforts that involve the rest of the world, because General Keen seemed completely oblivious to what the Dutch were doing at the port – and activities at the port should be priority one.
When you don’t know the name of the top US civilian leader in the Haitian relief effort, there is a serious political leadership problem.
The State Department told NBC news on Tuesday that there are still 5,500 missing Americans in Haiti. What the article does not mention is that no Americans have been pulled out of rubble alive in 2 days, and the odds of finding more survivors is very low.
Missing does not mean dead.
High numbers of missing Americans are not uncommon after natural disasters. The number of missing originally peaked at 7,000 a few days after the September 11th attacks, but that number was eventually reduced to 3,016. Two weeks after the 2004 Tsunami, there were still 2500 inquiries to the State Department regarding American citizens, but that number today is 18 dead, 16 presumed dead, with 456 inquiries remaining.
Every situation is unique though. The Tsunami was spread out over thousands of miles and several countries. The number of inquiries following 9/11 was reduced to less than 3,500 within days. 5,500 inquiries after a full week in a concentrated population area represents a very high number of missing, and Brian Williams of NBC made a comment tonight that indeed the number of Americans killed in Haiti may be more than on Americans killed on 9/11.
5,500 would represent more Americans than have died in the Iraq War to date, the Afghanistan war to date, the September 11th attacks, or Hurricane Katrina. The number 5,500 will come down, but it may not come down as much as people hope it would. In a city of starving people with very little water with American citizens and soldiers running around the city, it is not hard for an American to reach communications. While I hope it is not, the death toll of Americans may be very high.
If the earthquake in Haiti turns out to be the largest loss of US citizen lives in the 21st century, or the second greatest natural disaster to kill Americans in history – only the 1900 hurricane of Galveston, Texas being more lethal; how does that change your opinion of what we have seen over the last week? Does it influence your opinion regarding the US response to date?
Several people have made various comments comparing Haiti to Hurricane Katrina. In Vice President Biden’s press conference Saturday at SOUTHCOM, he emphasized this was much worse than Katrina. To date, if the UN has really buried 50,000 bodies already, in the context of deaths alone the Haitian earthquake is already more than 50x worse than Katrina, and potentially as much as 5x worse just for American citizens.
Maybe if we recognize the scope of the Haitian earthquake in context, we will start to understand how important it is to get the Command, Coordination, and Cooperation of operations on the ground of Haiti under better control, and that should include fixing the void of US political leadership in Haiti so the press can get better answers what is going on.
The Navy is about to open up the port, but that doesn’t mean anything if the situation is uncoordinated on the ground and supplies make it to shore only to sit on the pier. The UN and Haiti appear to be making decisions that knowingly will lead to wounded people dieing over the next several days, potentially a lot of wounded. This should be speaking to just how critical the situation is in Haiti, but it is very murky and unclear. Execution of a distribution plan with the supplies soon expected to be delivered by sea could change the trends and meet the demands for food, water, medicine, etc..
Will the organization, coordination, and cooperation on the ground be in place by the time supply arrives by sea? Without better US political leadership to work with the UN and NGOs, the answer would appear to be no. We need to avoid such a political failure, because the fallout simply means the DoD will have to pick up the slack – again making our public diplomacy effort inside Haiti one with combat boots.
Military Sealift Command reports that USNS Lummus to deliver relief to Haiti:
U.S. Navy Maritime Prepositioning Ship USNS 1ST LT Jack Lummus is loading cargo at Blount Island Command, Jacksonville, Fla., Jan. 18-19 in support of international disaster relief efforts underway in Haiti following the Jan. 12 earthquake.
Lummus is loading supplies and equipment from both the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Marine Corps, as well as cargo from other U.S. government agencies.
USAID is providing more than 120 pallets of relief supplies, and more than 400 16-ounce bottles of propane for the shipment.
The Marine Corps is providing cargo to support the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit as it gives humanitarian assistance to the people of Haiti. The cargo includes dump trucks, bulldozers and other heavy equipment. The Marine Corps is also providing electrical generators, water purification units, lumber and building materials, and limited medical supplies.
In addition, the Army is providing three containers of port opening equipment, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing four medical resupply vehicles and more than 90 pallets of relief supplies, including kitchenware and plastic sheeting. The U.S. government is also providing containers carrying 24,000 gallons of gasoline and 24,000 gallons of diesel fuel.
The ship will also transport Navy lighterage – motorized and non-motorized barges – to transport the Lummus’ cargo to shore.
It appears my earlier thought that the Seabee ship SS Cape May might be used to carry the Improved Navy Lighterage System was incorrect (I hope no one lost any money making bets on that) and the INLS will be carried on Lummus.
More on the INLS here:
The lighterage system was developed during World War II and a redesign began in the early 1990s.“Our troops needed a platform that could perform faster, safer unloads in higher sea states,” said Larry Mendlow, technical director for the Sealift Support Office at the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, which developed the new system with input from MSC.
The new lighterage system is better able to operate even in sea state three — defined by winds of 14-15 knots and waves 3.5 to four feet. In addition, the new system’s motorized ferry travels at up to 12 knots, 8.5 knots faster than previous ferries.“They took the old system and made huge adjustments, increasing maneuverability, speed and stability so that beach groups will have a steadier, faster platform to work from,” said Capt. Harry Bolton, Lopez’s civilian master who has 33 years of experience in command of MPS.
Overhead photos of MSC lighterage by Michael Alston, ship with INLS astern by Lt. Cmdr. Bryan E. Heller.
One question that needs to be asked is why in the hell it has taken so long to get INLS moving to Haiti? It was one of my first thoughts (see here) on hearing the major port of Haiti was fouled, and I’m just an old retired hack.
As a MARAD spokesman was quoted in one other post, each ship can carry more than what 400 aircraft can. The US military should quit screwing around with Haitian airports and work on Haitian ports.
UPDATE: Nice Wall Street Journal article that gets the point here:
Getting the port even partially operational would allow officials to speed deliveries of humanitarian aid and supplies and relieve the airport, also making it easier to resume commercial flights to Port-au-Prince. Two other Haitian terminals, used to bring in fuel, have also been heavily damaged, said Reginal Villard, a Port-au Prince shipping agent.Relief organizations and commercial shippers are chomping at the bit to get cargo in and unloaded. On Tuesday, the Coast Guard told Mr. Villard he could unload a barge carrying 123 containers of emergency aid towed by a tugboat from Alabama through Puerto Rico to Port-au Prince. But it would have to be done gingerly, he was told.
Crowley Maritime Corp., a Jacksonville, Fla., shipper which operates throughout the Caribbean, said it will conduct a test beach landing on Friday. A Crowley ship carrying 12 containers loaded with water and ready-to-eat meals will anchor off Port-au-Prince, a spokesman said. A smaller vessel, with a crane aboard, will be waiting to unload the containers and carry the supplies to the beach.
Crowley also plans to bring a barge in by Feb. 2 and “put it on the beach to have it serve as a makeshift dock,” the spokesman said.
Crowley is going to do its own JLOTS, I suppose.
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