Official is out of touch with reality
Editor, The Times:
Criticism of U.S. military relief-operations in Haiti by Italy’s senior civil-protection official is political hot air [“Disaster expert: U.S. Haiti relief ‘pathetic,’” page one, Jan. 25].
Guido Bertolaso whines that American military officers are running a “civilian” relief effort. I’d like to ask Bertolaso where else he’d find the personnel, equipment, organizational discipline and individual initiative to do what’s been accomplished so far.
Some of the first medical responders to hit the beach were Coast Guard medics from the cutters Tahoma and Mohawk. It was Air Force personnel who reopened the Port-au-Prince airport — providing not only continuous air-traffic control, but maximizing use of a pitifully small aircraft parking-area. The main port would still be closed were it not for Navy Seabees, Navy divers and the Coast Guard cutter Oak — the only buoy tender in Haiti.
Who’s been bringing bulk supplies directly ashore away from Port-au-Prince? It’s the sailors on the landing craft from the Navy assault ship Bataan. Where’s the best-equipped hospital — one that’s not going to crumble in the next aftershock? It’s the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort. Who else has been distributing food and water? Troops from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.
Bertolaso’s charge that the military doesn’t “have a close rapport with the international organizations and aid groups” is false. Our military leaders have been coordinating closely with relief groups and U.N. officials.
Haiti relief is an overwhelming job, but the situation there would be even worse without the initial and continuing work of the U.S. military. It’s yet another reason I’m proud to have worn the uniform.
The Italian official describes our military effort as “a truly powerful show of force, but … completely out of touch with reality.” Rubbish. It’s a truly powerful show of compassion and Signor Bertolaso is the one who is out of touch.
— Phil Johnson, retired Coast Guard lieutenant commander, Seattle