USFK helicopters will be sent to help out in tsunami-hit South Asia:
The American forces stationed in South Korea will send transport helicopters to the tsunami-hit regions in South Asian nations to help relief and rehabilitation efforts there, according to officials Wednesday.
Navy Adm. Thomas Fargo, chief of U.S. Pacific Command, said at a news conference in Washington that the U.S. military plans to double the number of helicopters operating in the regions from 46 to more than 90.
The helicopters, proving to be the best way to get vital supplies such as food, water and medicine to areas where many roads are cut off, will come from U.S. assets in South Korea and Guam, he said.
“We’ve not been ordered any deployment operation for the quake-hit countries,” Col. MaryAnn B. Cummings, public affairs officer of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), told The Korea Times. “However, we have capability to conduct the operation.”
Meanwhile, our globally-minded neighbor across the DMZ has also decided to chip in to global relief efforts with US$150,000.
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Absolutely amazing. Note the amount of the nK contribution. My only question is, if they are spinning up the presses to make 1,500 each $100 bills, then why don’t they just let them run a few days and print a bunch more? Then they could really shine in the international aid bandwagon, which is beginning to resemble an Olympic medal race. But then again, if they gave much more than $150k, then that might look too suspicious.
There has been some talk here in the US on the cable news about whether the US efforts to help the areas hit by the tidal wave will “improve the US image” in the predominately Muslim nations hit.
That and this note from South Korea made me remember one of my flabbergast moments in SK –
I was in Kangwang Provice doing some language study and research around the time the east coast had some very bad flooding. I was watching a local news spot on I believe SBS —
It started with an A-10 USFK jet taking off. Then, it looped again and again — a large USFK medical transport helicopter with a large green net under it holding large crates of supplies — and the helicopter was flying over the top of a Korean school and laying the supplies down on the dirt soccer field. Over and over again you saw the helicopter fly over the school….
The headline of the piece was something like “This is humanitarian aid?” and the rest of the piece was cut in interviews with local residents and one or two anti-US civic leaders