Coming into Stanley I passed many meadows as high and lush as Tuolomne Meadows  and the Sawtooth Range is every bit as dramatic as the vistas in  Yosemite.

I also realize why most environmentalists are from the cities and populated areas.  If they drove across Nevada and Idaho they would be convinced that we have plenty of unspoiled places.

I camped last night next to the Yankee Fork of the Salmon River,  not in a designated campsite but in what we called a “throw down” camp down a 4×4 track. 

I camped in a “throw down” area (non designated) on Thursday night right beside the Yankee Fork of the Salmon River.  On Friday morning I came to hot springs by the road and soaked awhile and then drove along the Salmon River all day.  At one point where the hatchery spills into the river hundreds of fisherman were in and along the river and a man in waders was carrying a huge, probably forty pound, salmon to his car.  Non resident fishing liscences are dear so I continued to North Fork, where I began the climb to Chief Joseph’s Pass (7000 feet) and pulled off to camp at Twin Creeks among the tall pines next to one of the creeks.   I have learned to do the steep grades in the early morning when the truck and air are cool.

 A Montana assemblyman  who is also a Veteran For Peace may meet with  me about issues such as Safeguard the Guard and Federal Responsibility for Federalization Costs.  I will spend tomorrow,  Sunday, calling members to see if I can organize support for him.

I visited the groves of ancient trees at Sequoia and was impressed by my own insignificance….and humanity’s. The trees may likely stand until we are gone…or we may finally kill them with our pollution. I learned from a ranger that cell phones are the cause of the die off among the bees. Their radiations disrupt the bee’s navigation system. My cell phone is off for good! This could disrupt the food system so severely that global starvation could follow.

Y0semite Valley was a joke, traffic jams during the entire afternoon and fifteen minute lines to use the outhouse. After gettting a ticket for sleeping in my truck (all the campgrounds were full), I drove to Toulomne Meadows and spent three days there. It was lovely and I was able even with bad knees to hike up the river and to soda springs in the meadow. I also hiked to the timber line from Tioga Pass.

Next stop is Reno and I hope to find some veterans for peace there. I will be at the Motel 6 at 866 N Wells phone 775 786 9852 . I will leave the following documents at the veterans buildings and clinics:

Best wishes, Lane

Dear veteran, organization or concerned citizen!

 As a counselor for the Santa Barbara Vet Center , a VA outreach program, I became aware of the PTSD and “survivor guilt’ in that community and of things that are useful therapy for those veterans who suffer from PTSD. A key need is to take care of your fellow combat veterans. In today’s military recruits are trained to bring everyone along and leave noone behind. For these reasons many of the returning veterans will find a career helping veterans to be both helpful and fulfilling. I think I can propose such a career path.  The Obama administration will make 3.2 billion dollars available to end homelessness in veterans with 150 million available in the next fiscal year at their Homeless Grants and Per Diem page http://www1.va.gov/HOMELESS/ GPD.asp it seems that there is still 12 million for this fiscal year! Veterans have priority and it could be combined with a non profit management curriculum on the GI bill and used as tutorial/practicum. Help at all levels can be gotten from Community Partners in the LA area or with organizations listed in the directory in the correspondence below this: Community Partners provides fiscal sponsorship to qualified projects, as an alternative to incorporation as an independent nonprofit organization, mainly in the Los Angeles area. I would encourage you to channel veteran leaders who might be interested in fiscal sponsorship to carefully review the information on their website (http://www.communitypartners. org/fiscal-sponsorship.html). If after review an individual leader feels that s/he is ready and willing to make a commitment to fiscal sponsorship as a means for realizing their project for housing veterans, I would encourage them to submit a full proposal to Community Partners Incubator Services (see: http://www.communitypartners. org/incubator-services/how-to- apply/) . Veteran leaders may be interested in seeking out fiscal sponsors in other cities. You can find a directory of other fiscal sponsors in other parts of the country at tides center  http://www.tidescenter.org/ become-a-project/additional- resources/fiscal-sponsors/ index.html  

The way it works, or could work is that the vet gets most of the funding and per diem through the VA Homeless Grants and Per Diem program: http://www1.va.gov/HOMELESS/ GPD.asp  and the rest via community partners or foundations…see http://foundationcenter.org/ collections/ You can also get legal advice to start non profit if you want one: http://www.publiccounsel.org/ overview/cdp.html  Many vets and organizations have already opened facilities for the homeless veterans and are receiving grants and per diem already…making it an example of good works that pay. Veterans will have priority with the VA and most other foundations. People in general are eager to see vets work in this realm!

Respectfully submitted,

Andersonlane47@yahoo.com andersonlane47@gmail.com

Rowland Lane Anderson, Adjutant, Disabled American Veterans Chapter 37

Lifetime Member of Veterans For Peace, Veterans of Foreign Wars and VVA

For VA clinics, veteran organizations and Vet Centers:

Veterans Exposed to Depleted Uranium

We are offering to help represent veterans who have been exposed to depleted uranium munitions, dust or radiation and are suffering from cancer or other side effects. We have expertise in medical, legal and administrative law.

We as a chapter of the VFP have started a program and done research to develop a brief for presentation to the VA rating board to obtain service connection disability for the affected veteran. Gulf war I and II vets are encouraged to get in touch with us for information on this project and to register at the Depleted Uranium Registry:

http://www.afip.org/consultation/environmental/du/

Update Oct. 2009: Download the Dept. of Veterans Affairs’ “Evaluation Protocol for Gulf War and Iraqi Freedom Veterans with Potential Exposure to Depleted Uranium (DU)” handbook (pdf format).

PLEASE CONTACT US WITH ANY QUESTIONS:

Veterans For Peace DU Quest TEL 805 9843322

info@vfpsb.org

or lalapapa@ix.netcom.com , lalapapa4@gmail.com

FURTHER INFORMATION:

http://www.veteransforpeaceny.org/vfpduvets.htm

http://www.afip.org/consultation/environmental/du/

Veterans For Peace Santa Barbara DU Quest: http://www.vfpsb.org/projects/depleted-uranium-quest/

R. Lane Anderson, Adjutant, Disabled American Veterans Ch 37

Lifetime Member of Veterans of Foreign Wars and Vietnam Vets of America

andersonlane47@yahoo.com andersonlane47@gmail.com

to confirm: DAV Ch. 37 Commander (805) 568-0020 ejprice@yahoo.com

For DU workshop in Portland and peace vets along the way::

Veterans Exposed to Depleted Uranium

We are offering to help represent veterans who have been exposed to depleted uranium munitions, dust or radiation and are suffering from cancer or other side effects. We have expertise in medical, legal and administrative law.

We as a chapter of the VFP have started a program and done research to develop a brief for presentation to the VA rating board to obtain service connection disability for the affected veteran. Gulf war I and II vets are encouraged to get in touch with us for information on this project and to register at the Depleted Uranium Registry:

http://www.afip.org/consultation/environmental/du/

Update Oct. 2009: Download the Dept. of Veterans Affairs’ “Evaluation Protocol for Gulf War and Iraqi Freedom Veterans with Potential Exposure to Depleted Uranium (DU)” handbook (pdf format).

A. I. Holtz, MD, FAAP has had seven years experience on the VA rating board in the Los Angeles office. He is a Harvard trained physician and has worked for all the branches of the military.

PLEASE CONTACT US WITH ANY QUESTIONS:

Dr. Albert Holtz, MD, FAAP
POB 7107
OXNARD, CA 93031
TEL 805 9843322, email lalapapa@ix.netcom.com , lalapapa4@gmail.com
info@vfpsb.org

FURTHER INFORMATION:

http://www.veteransforpeaceny.org/vfpduvets.htm

http://www.afip.org/consultation/environmental/du/

Veterans For Peace Santa Barbara DU Quest: http://www.vfpsb.org/projects/depleted-uranium-quest/

R. Lane Anderson, Adjutant, Disabled American Veterans Ch 37

Lifetime Member of Veterans For Peace

andersonlane47@yahoo.com andersonlane47@gmail.com

http://www.smmirror.com/#mode=single&view=18561

another story:

latimes.com/ news/local/ la-me-homeless- vets-20100629, 0,754255. story
 

VA commits $20 million to convert West L.A. building into therapeutic homeless facility

Secured after a long-term effort, the commitment marks a milestone in the county’s efforts to aid chronically homeless veterans, public officials say.

By Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times
 
June 29, 2010
 
The federal Department of Veterans Affairs has approved $20 million in funding to convert a little-used building at the West Los Angeles VA campus into therapeutic housing for chronically homeless veterans — a plan that has been years in the making.
 
The action was jointly announced Monday by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), U.S. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) and Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.
 
Yaroslavsky said the commitment marked a milestone that “has been a long time coming.”
 
He credited Santa Monica Mayor Bobby Shriver with proposing in 2004 that three unused or underused buildings on the campus be converted to help ease the county’s homeless veteran problem. Los Angeles County has nearly 6,540 veterans sleeping on the streets each night, according to the statement from Feinstein, Waxman and Yaroslavsky.
 
Shriver and others became frustrated as the veterans agency engaged in a drawn-out process of securing money to convert the buildings, coupled with what seemed to be little enthusiasm for the idea. Nudging from Feinstein, Waxman and Yaroslavsky helped pushed the project forward.
 
At a June 16 meeting in Washington, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki committed $20 million in funding to renovate and rehabilitate Building 209, part of a “historic district” on the campus. Of that amount, half will go toward seismic work, and the rest will be used to convert the building into living quarters and facilities for social services.
 
Yaroslavsky said the aim was to eventually secure additional funding to convert two other buildings.
 
He projected that 70 to 90 chronically homeless veterans could eventually be housed in each of the buildings.
 
“We finally got to first base,” Shriver said. “But I want to get to second, third and home base ASAP.”
 
The program would offer housing with medical care, mental health treatment and other services to those deemed most vulnerable.
 
The VA funding “marks the first meaningful commitment by the VA to house chronically homeless veterans,” Yaroslavsky said.
 
Most recently, Building 209 has housed a print studio workshop where veterans learn silk screening and print making skills. The workshop is part of the Strawberry Flag project, a strawberry-growing operation in the shape of a giant U.S. flag spearheaded by artist Lauren Bon and psychiatrist Jonathan Sherin, associate chief of mental health for the VA West Los Angeles Healthcare Center. Veterans tend the strawberries and make preserves.

We are offering to help represent veterans who have been exposed to depleted uranium munitions, dust or radiation and are suffering from cancer or other side effects. We have expertise in medical, legal and administrative law.

We as a chapter of the VFP have started a program and done research to develop a brief for presentation to the VA rating board to obtain service connected disability for the affected veteran. Gulf War I and II vets are encouraged to get in touch with us for information on this project and to register at the Depleted Uranium Registry at:

http://www.afip.org/consultation/environmental/du/

Update Oct. 2009: Download the Dept. of Veterans Affairs’ “Evaluation Protocol for Gulf War and Iraqi Freedom Veterans with Potential Exposure to Depleted Uranium (DU)” handbook (pdf format).

A.I. Holtz, MD, FAAP has had seven years experience on the VA rating board in the Los Angeles office.  He is a Harvard trained physician and has worked for all the branches of the military.

PLEASE CONTACT US WITH ANY QUESTIONS:

Albert Holtz, MD, FAAP
PO Box 7107
Oxnard, CA 93031
Phone: (805) 984-3322
Email:
lalapapa@ix.netcom.com
lalapapa4@gmail.com
info@vfpsb.org

FURTHER INFORMATION:

http://www.veteransforpeaceny.org/vfpduvets.htm

http://www.afip.org/consultation/environmental/du/

Veterans For Peace Santa Barbara DU Quest: http://www.vfpsb.org/projects/depleted-uranium-quest/

Thomas J. Scheff, Professor Emeritus
Dept of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara

Web: http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/scheff

REVIVAL OF FEELINGS: MEMORIALIZING FOR CHANGE

When I was a child growing up in the South, I found religious services boring. But I once sneaked into a tent revival meeting. People were laughing, crying, shaking, dancing, and rolling around on the floor. I was delighted because I had never seen anything like it, especially not in my own family. Like many families, we seemed to have a no-emotion rule. My father’s anger was the only exception. As suggested below, acting out anger usually turns out to be a way of hiding other emotions, such as grief, fear, and embarrassment.  This note concerns the revival of those hidden feelings, even with respect to war and peace.

For the last six years I have been helping at an Iraq War Memorial that my group, Veterans for Peace, sets up on the beach every Sunday. We install what looks like a cemetery, now 3000 crosses, in the morning and remove it in the evening, as per city ordinance. The pier is heavily traveled on Sundays, mostly by tourists. What happens between us vets and the visitors who stop is sometimes like a little revival meeting.

In my early days at the pier, I was puzzled that most of the strollers would go past the memorial with a sidelong glance, at most. How could they ignore a vast mock graveyard, especially since most didn’t even know that it was there? After a few weeks, however, I realized that I had done the same thing. One of my friends who had worked at the memorial from its beginning, ignoring my excuses, had to invite me many times. What could I learn? As it turned out, I had a lot to learn.

Finally, to stop the pestering, I went to the pier on a Sunday morning. To my surprise, I was overcome with feeling when I saw the memorial. I cried for at least 15 minutes. Now I understood why I had avoided the visit for so long: I didn’t want to feel. The number of dead, or any other fact, for that matter, has little meaning until we discover the feeling that underlies it.

I have seen resistance to feeling repeated hundreds of times among the visitors to the pier. The ones who stop to talk are overcome with surprise and grief when they realize the emotional meaning of what before was “just a number” to them.  The difference between me and the thousands who go right past the memorial is that they don’t have a friend to cajole them into stopping.

Ancient wisdom has told us KNOW THYSELF. But we don’t, especially our feelings. It is possible that most of us are asleep to our deepest feelings. Perhaps knowing feelings has meaning not only in our personal lives, but in the realm of politics as well. We are a nation asleep if we just think and act. We wake up when we find the feelings that we have been hiding.

Perhaps the main reason that there was support for the unnecessary Iraq war and the unwinnable Afghanistan war is that the public prefers to cover up their fear, grief and shame with self-righteous anger. We will probably need many years of mourning and atonement for the death and destruction that our silence allowed. Public rituals of forgiveness would allow us to feel our hidden emotions. Private rituals would also play a part. We need to acknowledge that we are afraid, angry, sad and ashamed in a way that revives feelings that are hidden from us. Sharing these feelings openly with those that are dear to us is way to become deeply connected with them.

In the ancient Hebrew tradition, there was encouragement to mourn the loss of parents for the rest of one’s life. Now, as Iris Dement’s song puts it, there is No Time to Cry.

Prayer For Peace rather than War: Let me know my own emotions.

I want to cry bitter tears for the loved ones I have lost, and for the immense loss and destruction that has been going on in the world.

So that I will be less reckless, let me feel fear for the danger and death that we all face.

I often feel weak, helpless, inadequate, or humiliated. Let me feel shame or embarrassment instead of ignoring them or hiding them behind anger and resentment.

Help me to express my anger verbally, rather than suppressing it or acting it out, and encourage others to do the same.

Help me to tolerate authentic expressions of emotion in my family and workplace, rather than encouraging the suppression of feeling.

Even if following this prayer leads to fits of crying, shivering, sweating, or laughing in myself or others, I am ready.

Public monuments like the Vietnam and Arlington West memorials are just a beginning.

Perhaps we could create everyday rituals in our families, offices, schools and churches so that we sleepers can awake.

I spoke with many sailors and one officer from the Abraham Lincoln when it returned from Indonesia .  They anchored offshore at Santa Barbara a weekend when we set up Arlington West.  The sailors sought us out.   They wanted to tell us about the lives they had saved,  about the real service to humanity they had rendered.  This on the largest weapon that the US military owns!  They had been to war but only spoke about the lives they saved,  the real service they rendered.

Could this be a recipe for ending war as we know it?
When the world is experiencing an uninterrupted series of disasters as a result of having consumed too much,  will we have time for the “normal” conflicts between nation states and non nation interests?  Admittedly the maritime services cooperative strategy for the 21st century hits the usual “keeping sea lanes open for commerce” etc. points but standing out to me was the term cooperative and the section on the US military role in international disaster relief.   If we really want to see the end of war as we have known it in the past,  can we not envision a role for the military industrial complex?  They are not going away without a profit!

What I have enjoyed about Paul K Chappell’s work (www.paulkchappell.com) is the candid affirmation of good disciplines learned in the military and the potential for good there.  I think that we may find more of that in the million returned veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan .  They joined voluntarily,  many with the hope of a career in the military but maybe while they were attracted to the military they disliked the mission.  I talk to these young vets at Arlington West.   A change of mission to make the Department of Defense more defensive and less offensive is popular among them.  We need to recruit future members from this group of a million veterans of war.  How can we understand them better?

Now I attend daily meetings in a “Veterans Building” run by Beacon House of San Pedro that is in an old Navy building at the corner of 10th and Mesa. There are veterans and homeless in attendance although most are living at Beacon House. I share experiences with them daily and it is a great source of gratitude and understanding.

VAMC WLA has many different housing projects in the old buildings, many of which are confined by client confidentiality requisites. I think you do not know how many of the vets are already there. I have attended groups with some of them. I wish Beacon House would take an old building like New Directions has, but there may not be enough homeless vets willing to do something about their substance abuse to fill another building….I don’t know. I do know that it would be real foolish to try to put all the homeless veterans on the VAMC WLA property without a committment to recovery!

My efforts at understanding what goes on at the VAMC WLA led to many discussions on that 388 acre campus.   VAMC WLA uses sharing partners to house homeless veterans and promote recovery and integration.  One revealing project is Strawberry Flag

So if the wars are essentially about the strategic and economic need to secure the oil and energy, the wars are about our use and consumption of oil. The main user of oil in the usa is personal transport, followed by consumer goods transport.

The top consumer of energy in the USA is not cars, though. It is buildings. Choosing a responsible facility for a convention is a big one!  Air conditioning and heating need to be looked at. Veterans For Peace have excellent people for this. On the St. Louis vets ride we were housed in an old church and my companion,  Roland James, did a complimentary energy audit on the building.  Roland is an energy expert who worked in public utilities. Why not have him help with facilities?

So we need to secure future peace through being the change we want in the world and arrange responsible transport for our conventions and responsible consumption and facilities at the conventions…its a matter of peace in our future.

One of the few times you have seen Al Gore,  James Hansen,  the United Nations Panel on Climate Change  and the US Pentagon (already changes are being made
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Cooperative_Strategy_for_21st_Century_Seapower) agree on something is the  consensus that global warming and climate chaos will cause future conflicts, global instability and displacement of people.  This global warming and its consequent climate change are due to greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.  The number one emitter of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is not cars or airplanes,  although the airplanes are a disproportionate threat as Monbiot points out http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/sep/21/travelsenvironmentalimpact.ethicalliving

The largest emitter of greenhouse gases is the meat,  dairy and egg industry.  They also consume an incredible amount of energy and water,  which may also be a source of future conflict.  So our diet at the convention is a special place of interest if we want to be the change we want in the future and our vision is peace.

Lastly, and a bit on a tangent,  a trusted and valued friend said he would rather people go to the protest in a car or plane than miss it.  I would point out that the people we most revere did not protest as such,  they were engaged in real action.  Rosa Parks did not protest, she sat down and stayed put…same at the lunch counters.  Gandhi did not protest, he made cotton thread and salt…the government protested!  Perhaps the action we need to take is to walk, ride a bike, take a bus, take the train or webcast….not the same old paradigm that got us global warming!

I now ask for people who will organize responsible transport for their regions….and ask for my southern california friends to join with me and commit to travel by efficient vehicle to Portland, Maine….since I want the birthday to be a success by being the change we want to see…peace in our future!  Here in SoCal,  lets get a prius if its three or four of us,  get a van or bus if its more….and stop along the way in VFW and American Legion halls and churches (last trip to vfw halls http://www.flickr.com/photos/13174975@N04/  ) to recruit for Veterans for Peace based on our support for a new mission for our military http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Cooperative_Strategy_for_21st_Century_Seapower

All across the usa, vfw and american legion halls are centers of local culture and discussion and as veterans we have a unique access to them.  In some of these photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/13174975@N04/ you see local people who actually engaged me in anti war discussion…the woman had a husband on active duty and a father that died in Vietnam.

Enjoying whats left while not being a part of the problem, indeed trying to be a part of the solution, is what I am after. I hope that I will be able to focus only on my own responsibility though. To me it makes no sense to drive or fly to a protest about global warming or wars for resources. As Gandhi said, Be the change we want. Santa Monica library’s computer room is clearly labeled the Computer Commons. Indeed, the libraries are all that is left of our commons. When everyone has laptops the library commons will go the way of the public telephone, now very hard to find. I heard someone advocating for universal wifi for all who have laptops and he said that everyone should have access to the internet….I hate to break the news to him, everyone does have access!…without buying a computer and creating the cyber contamination that ends up poisoning the poorest. Celphones destroy what is left of public telephones and also contribute to cyber poisoning and resource wars. But see, there I go again!! I don’t want to coerce anyone, I just want to live my life without being a part of the problem. With my boat, I sew the forty year old sails, spice the lines and work to make the solar panels power the boat when the sails don’t.

By the way, its a buyers market in boats like mine and you can get one for almost nothing…learn to sail if needed by getting on a racing crew and learn to anchor with a local power squadron….independence!

It is my recollection that the national veterans for peace started to counter the machinations of the empire in latin america. It seems significant that members have finally elected someone in Joey King that has a latin america focus. Considering the progress and potential for progress in latin america, it seems to be Veterans For Peace most neglected opportunity!

http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1755

Since then the FMLN in El Salvador and:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81lvaro_Colom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d’%C3%A9tat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Lugo

Now a new idea…or maybe an old one!

Transforming Militarism to Humanitarianism for the future!

This will be our best recruiting tool, and therefore our best fund raising tool. It is something I have already tried out on active duty military at Arlington West, on veterans at VFW meetings and on the public during my campaign….it is something that can unite us with the active duty military and the environmentalists. Even if the transformation of our military from empire to global assistance cannot be done it is something that is worth trying to do.

We have all seen the predictions…by environmentalists and the pentagon….that global warming and climate chaos will increase conflict and displacement of people. The gist is that military activity is going to increase, whether VFP endorses it or opposes it. R. Bucky Fuller, who would have been a vfp if he had been asked, reflected on his career in the Navy about the conversion of defense spending from weaponry to livingry. He liked to point out that refrigeration, transistors and the internet all came from defense spending. I think that our mission statement commits us to opposing the use of war as an instrument of foreign policy and that we can embrace the good that our military…and likely only our military…can accomplish in an era of increased global conflict and instability. Again, knowing the danger of overworking this concept, I tout:

Read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Cooperative_Strategy_for_21st_Century_Seapower

Excerpt:

Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Operations & Seapower Strategy

A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower calls for a diplomacy-building approach echoing the mantra that “preventing wars is as important as winning wars”^[22] and “focuses on opportunities versus threats; on optimism over fear and on confidence instead of doubt.” ^[23] It recognizes the challenges imposed by the uncertain conditions in a time of rapid change and makes pro-active assistance and disaster response crucial elements to building relationships across nations. By working with the U.S. State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and non-governmental organizations, maritime forces provide unique capabilities to bear in times of crisis as set forth in the strategy.

While humanitarian missions are generally not traditionally thought of as major sea service missions, military leaders say these tasks are crucial for promoting maritime security. Admiral Gary Roughead said this strategy takes homeland defense, “a step further.” He says that “through globally persistent, maritime forces, U.S. seapower will always exist primarily to fight and help win our nation’s wars but… we can do more.”^[6] When Tropical Cyclone Sidr struck the southern coast of Bangladesh on November 15, 2007, U.S. Navy Sailors and Marines offered almost immediate assistance. Within days, the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), embarked on the amphibious ship Tarawa, was in the devastated country providing crucial care to wounded and displaced citizens.^[24] Military corpsmen and doctors bandaged the wounded and worked in concert with the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) helping the neediest from a storm that left several hundred thousand Bangladeshis homeless. After the storm, U.S. service members also provided maritime security patrols around the coast of Bangladesh.

The military sea services also responded swiftly to the tsunami that struck Indonesia and Southeast Asia in December 2004. Marines from Naval Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit Six (NEPMU-6) left their home base of Pearl Harbor a few days later deploying to Indonesia. Once there, dozens of NEPMU members provided humanitarian support including medical help and conducted water quality testing and insect collection for disease examination.^[25] Less than a week after the storm hit, Navy helicopters from the aircraft carrier, Abraham Lincoln were flying over the Indian Ocean transporting supplies, bringing in disaster relief teams and supporting humanitarian airlifts to tsunami-stricken coastal regions.^[26]

The U.S. Coast Guard provided relief to the tsunami affected regions of Southeast Asia delivering over 40,000 pounds of food January 21, 2005 in the form of emergency high energy biscuits, to Medan, Indonesia and over 21,000 pounds of medical supplies, and temporary shelters to Utaphao, Thailand via two Coast Guard C130 airplanes.^[27] Additionally, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Munro shuttled more than 80 tons of humanitarian relief supplies from Singapore to the Navy amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard for distribution to tsunami victims in northern Indonesia.^[28]

Admiral Gary Roughead said the U.S. response to the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia was, “a demonstration to ourselves and to others of the value of being able to render humanitarian assistance and disaster response from the sea.” He added, “There is no way we could have done it without the sea-based capabilities of a aircraft carrier and expeditionary forces.”^[6]

The U.S. sea services also respond to domestic emergencies when needed… When Hurricane Katrina flooded large portions of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005, maritime forces responded. Following the late-summer storm, Harry S. Truman, Iwo Jima and other Virginia-based Navy ships headed to the Gulf Coast to help with relief efforts^[29]. Thousands of military members were dispatched including Naval Mobile Construction Battalions and six Disaster Relief Teams (DRTs) providing amphibious construction equipment, medical personnel and supplies to the flooded areas.

In solidarity, Lane Anderson