*Harry Hope wrote:

From The Chicago Tribune, 9/4/05:

Navy ship nearby underused

Craft with food, water, doctors needed orders

By Stephen J. Hedges
Tribune national correspondent


ON THE USS BATAAN -

While federal and state emergency planners scramble to get more
military relief to Gulf Coast communities stricken by Hurricane
Katrina, a massive naval goodwill station has been cruising offshore,
underused and waiting for a larger role in the effort.

The USS Bataan, a 844-foot ship designed to dispatch Marines in
amphibious assaults, has helicopters, doctors, hospital beds, food and
water.

It also can make its own water, up to 100,000 gallons a day.

And it just happened to be in the Gulf of Mexico when Katrina came
roaring ashore.

The Bataan rode out the storm and then followed it toward shore,
awaiting relief orders.

Helicopter pilots flying from its deck were some of the first to begin
plucking stranded New Orleans residents.

But now the Bataan's hospital facilities, including six operating
rooms and beds for 600 patients, are empty.

A good share of its 1,200 sailors could also go ashore to help with
the relief effort, but they haven't been asked.

The Bataan has been in the stricken region the longest of any military
unit, but federal authorities have yet to fully utilize the ship.

Captain ready, waiting

________________________________________________________

My, my

Harry

Actually, the Bataan was the coodinating ship for all military aircraft
in the area (know as Red Crown or Green Crown, depending on type of
aircraft) for the first few days until an actual aircraft carrier could
be dispatched.

As for why the sailors didn't immediately go ashore, if you'd watch the
news, they weren't working on New Orleans, the LCAC (Landing Craft Air
Cushion) from Bataan have been making trips into Mississippi for the
last 3 days, hauling relief supplies and being used for some
evacuations. Contrary to some reports, there are victims other than
those in New Orleans.

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