Sam Spade's San Francisco

One of the world's largest and most sophisticated disaster response units is not far offshore from Burma. (By the way, I want to make something very clear. Out of respect to the Burmese people I refuse to use the current military dictatorship's preferred name of Myanmar. It's still Burma as far as I'm concerned.)

The USS Essex Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) is is the neighborhood. The Essex is a multipurpose amphibious assault ship with a large Marine landing force and it's the command ship of a powerful Navy fast response team.

In the photo: A jet comes in for a landing on the USS Essex (LHD-2). Click on the image to enlarge in a separate window for downloading.

Right now the Essex ESG is on patrol off the coasts of Burma and Thailand. Dozens of helicopters from the Essex could carry doctors, nurses, rescue personnel and vital medical supplies exactly where they are needed. The Marines could be boots down exactly where the most urgent help is needed and they could be there within hours. They could do that, but they are not allowed to help. The military dictatorship that controls Burma is not allowing our help into their cyclone ravaged country.

It's an insane situation.

The USS Essex has a major trauma hospital unit aboard that has six fully-equipped state-of-the-art operating rooms, four dental operating rooms, a very advanced medical laboratory and an on-board hospital with a 600-patient capacity. Essex is second only to the Navy's hospital ships in medical support capability. Essex is able to provide full surgical and trauma care to military personnel under battle conditions or provide disaster relief in support of humanitarian missions during peacetime. Essex was designed to respond to disasters just like the one the Burmese people are facing today.

The insanity is in the fact that Essex is on station and is ready, willing and fully able to help. The dictatorship in control of Burma would rather see Burmese people die than see Americans on their soil. Remember, this is the same military dictatorship that shot Burmese monks. They kill anyone who threatens their absolute control and they are deathly afraid of the United States.

So, it appears that Essex will be unable to save lives, as it was designed to do.

The best way to get help to the Burmese people appears to be through Doctors Without Borders.

According to a report in the New York Times:

Doctors Without Borders, which had been running large H.I.V. and malaria programs in Burma, has about 80 staff members in the delta region and is sending more in, said Frank Smithuis, the group’s head of mission. He said the group was distributing food and medicine from the stores it already had in place.

In the worst-affected areas, he said, 95 percent of the people had lost their homes and everything they owned, and were in desperate need of food, water and shelter.

Dr. Smithuis said his group was dispatching teams of six — a doctor, a nurse, a medical assistant, two water and sanitation workers and a food distributor who would hire local people to help distribute food.

You can read the complete story by following this link to the New York Times.

According to a press release issued today by Doctors Without Borders:

As the first Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières(MSF) relief plane receives permission to land in Yangon tomorrow, Saturday, the international medical humanitarian organization has already intensified its emergency program. As MSF scales up, there is a need for more technical experts and further supplies in the coming days. MSF has staff in various countries awaiting visas, and several other planes of cargo ready to leave in the coming days, though these still need permission from authorities to land.

The first cargo plane, containing 40 metric tons of water and sanitation equipment, relief stocks, medicines, and therapeutic food, will leave Europe this afternoon. Landing clearance has been given, and our teams will be there to receive the material and immediately distribute it to some of the most affected.

You can read the complete press release by following this link to Doctors Without Borders.

USS Essex is the lead ship of the only forward deployed U.S. Expeditionary Strike Group and serves as the flagship for Combined Task Force 76; the Navy’s only forward-deployed amphibious force command. CTF-76 is headquartered at White Beach Naval Facility in Okinawa, Japan with an operating detachment in Sasebo, Japan.

For more information on the Essex ESG try these:
GlobalSecurity report on Essex ESG
U.S. Navy news article on Essex ESG
USS Essex - ship's website (Note: The site has recently been loading slowly or not at all)

Here's a map of Burma that can be enlarged and downloaded.

Also read the following article from Sam Spade's San Francisco: Help for Burma (Mayanmar): Doctors Without Borders in Burma Giving Help

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