USS Arlington returns from Haiti, mission accomplished

Once the helicopters had cycled through hundreds of missions off USS Arlington’s flight deck with food and medicine, the Norfolk-based ship tapped its other major capability — the landing craft in its well deck — to bring relief to the hardest-to-reach corner of earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Reaching the town of Jeremie in the most remote part of the earthquake zone cleared the way for aid agencies and governments to start the long task of helping Haiti rebuild — the same mission the helicopters operating off the Arlington’s flight deck had done farther east, said Capt. Eric Kellum the ship’s commanding officer, after docking back at Pier 10, Naval Station Norfolk on Wednesday.

“On a lot of missions, you know, you can say we made a difference for national security but when you’re handing out boxes of food to people in need, that’s something amazing,” he said.

Operating as what the Navy calls a sea base — a ship that operates offshore to launch small craft — is at the heart of what amphibious transport dock ships like USS Arlington are designed to do.

“We can go right into action, we don’t have to stop to set up cots and tents,” Kellum said.

The first part of the Arlington’s assignment in Haiti was to station itself a few miles offshore and serve as a base from which U.S. military helicopters ran hundreds of flights, carrying medicine, food and other supplies.

“We could see the collapsed homes, the collapsed buildings,” Kellum said.

The 7.2-magnitude earthquake Aug. 14 destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and rendered most roads on the southern peninsula impassable. The peninsula was hammered a few days later by Tropical Storm Grace.

Arlington’s sailors and Marines kept helicopters stocked and refueled as they shuttled between the ship, the Port au Prince airport — where international aid arrived and the towns and countryside at the western end of Haiti’s long southern peninsula.

They dispatched so many flights that they dubbed themselves “Arlington International” airport.

As the crisis around the city of Les Cayes and surrounding countryside eased, the Haitian and U.S. officials directing the crisis response worried they still couldn’t reach Jeremie.

That’s where the landing craft on the Arlington’s well deck came in. The ship steamed to Port-au-Prince, sent the landing craft to port to stock up with those 113,000 pounds of supplies, took the smaller vessels back on board, and hastened the 80 miles west to Jeremie.

There, the landing craft emerged from the Arlington’s well deck and powered onto a beach. Fifty sailors and 50 marines from the Arlington came along to unload the life-saving aid.

“I talked to many of them.” Kellum said. “They were all just humbled.”

The Arlington headed for Haiti on Aug 17, just a day after its return to Norfolk from three weeks at sea.

Dave Ress, 757-247-4535, [email protected]

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