The USS Arlington, after completely refitting its gear and stores in just 24 hours at Naval Station Norfolk, headed south Tuesday evening to help with disaster relief in earthquake- and storm-ravaged Haiti.
Its 400-plus member crew, just back Monday night from three weeks at sea — where it took part in the Navy’s globe-spanning Large Scale Exercise 2021 — scrambled all day Tuesday to unload the materiel for that mission and fill the ship with enough supplies for a humanitarian mission that could last up to 120 days.
As the afternoon wore on, they were joined by some of the 200 Marines who drove up from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The ship also took on pilots, aircrew and mechanics for MH-60 helicopters, which will be flying search and rescue missions and hauling relief supplies to communities where ports aren’t working or roads are impassable.
“Usually, this is the kind of thing that takes five days,” said Marine Lt. Col. Corbin Murtaugh, the planning officer for Expeditionary Strike Group 2, the 14-ship, Little Creek headquartered Navy and Marine unit that specializes in amphibious and near-shore operations.
“But Arlington exercised on this in June, and we’ve done this before,” he said. “This is expedited.”
Sailors shifted pallets full of medical supplies, emergency food supplies, diapers and other baby products, along with heavy equipment to shift rubble from hundreds of collapsed buildings, as well as the stores and spare parts needed to keep the ship’s company on station and the helicopters flying.
“It’s a little tight to head out so soon after three weeks at sea, but that’s just being selfish,” said Capt. Eric Kellum, commanding officer of the Arlington.
“But you know my mission orders say ‘to ease suffering and save lives’ — that mission, to save lives, you just can’t do better than that,” he said.
Haiti was hammered Saturday by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. At least 1,300 people are believed to have died, with an estimated 5,700 more suffering injuries.
At least 700 buildings have collapsed. About 1.5 million people have been affected one way or the other by the earthquake. Hundreds of thousands are sleeping in the open.
It is the second major quake to ravage Haiti in a decade, and the country, one of the poorest in the western hemisphere, was still recovering.
Aid efforts are being slowed by Tropical Storm Grace, which hit Haiti on Monday, bringing the kind of rains that could cause flooding and mudslides.
The Arlington will join the U.S. Southern Command Joint Task Force-Haiti that is coordinating Department of Defense support for the “whole of government” response by the United States.
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