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The Smoking Gun: Navy Ship sits unused awaiting Bush’s orders, while Bush ate cake

by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 6 September 2005
10 comments

Edito Governments Catastrophes USA

by Ben Frank

After the Hurricane struck, Bush did NOTHING to mitigate the disaster, instead he continued on his scheduled photo ops- yucking it up with Seniors, eating cake with John McCain, and playing guitar for the cameras. Meanwhile, a US Navy ship with amphibious landing vehicles, hopsital facilities with 600 beds, 9 million meals (MREs) and the capacity to make 100,000 gallons of water per day- sat unused for a week- awaiting Bush’s orders. In this BBC interview with Lt. Commander Sean Kelly says they could not act alone, they were waiting for Bush. Thousands died because Bush did nothing.

video:http://www.indybay.org/uploads/bbc-...

From the BBC interview (attached video), Lt. Commander Sean Kelly: "We had the USS Baton sailing almost behind the hurricane so that after the hurricane made landfall it’s search and rescue helicopters would be available almost immediately. So we had things ready. The only caveat is, we have to wait until the President authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can’t just act in this fashion, we have to wait for the President to give us permission."

This Knight Ridder news story has details on this navy ship, still completely UNUSED a week after
Katrina struck.

Published Sat. Sept 3rd, 2005

The USS Bataan, a 844-foot ship designed to dispatch U.S. Marines in amphibious assaults, has helicopters, doctors, hospital beds, food and water. It can also make its own water - up to 100,000 gallons a day. And it just happened to be in the Gulf of Mexico when Katrina came roaring ashore.

The Bataan rode out the storm and then followed it toward shore, awaiting relief orders. Helicopter pilots flying from its deck were some of the first to begin plucking stranded New Orleans residents.

But today the Bataan’s hospital facilities, including six operating rooms and beds for 600 patients, are empty. A good share of its 1,200 sailors could also go ashore to help with the relief effort, but they haven’t been asked. The Bataan has been in the stricken region the longest of any military unit, but federal authorities have yet to fully utilize the ship.

"Could we do more?" said Capt. Nora Tyson, commander of the Bataan. "Sure. I’ve got sailors who could be on the beach plucking through garbage or distributing water and food and stuff. But I can’t force myself on people.

"We’re doing everything we can to contribute right now, and we’re ready. If someone says you need to take on people, we’re ready. If they say hospitals on the beach can’t handle it ... if they need to send the overflow out here, we’re ready. We’ve got lots of room."

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/nation/12554907.htm

Bush’s actions immediately after Katrina struck (incl photos):
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/31/163230/12

note: This is should be the final nail in the coffin for Bush- but as usual the media will try to bury it. The spin on this may be: ’we need to remove that red tape and let the military act on their own, without orders.’ This would be a step further towards the police state- allowing the armed forces to act on their own... ie- lets give the brownshirts freedom to do as they choose.

The problem was not the red tape- the problem was Bush’s lack of leadership. Why did he continue with those photo ops? why didn’t he or anyone else in command order this ship into action?

www.benfrank.net/blog

Forum posts

  • Ben, listen up! The polls say that the majority of Americans don’t blame Bush, they blame the local and state governments and FEMA. Bush dodges the bullet again! Bush is on his 2nd term, he’s not running again. How are you going to get him? Awww, don’t cry.

  • They were helping. They rescued many people. Get your facts straight!

  • Louisiana is only a Democratic state because of the NOL population.

    With Louisiana the only remaining Democratic bastion in the midst of the New Confederacy, any policital newbie can see that a diaspora to Kansas and Texas will flip the state. Duh.

    Who do you think will replace the population of NOL? Toe-headed SUV-driving, bible thumpers who move into their gentrified condos (with erzatz wrought iron balconies). Once the refugees are separated from family, churches, and communities, they will accept the meager checks from the government. Meanwhile, investment bankers and emminent domainers will "rehabilitate" property paid for with our tax dollars. No wonder Bush and McCain are smiling.

  • Not true at all, as a visit to the USS Bataan website will show you. USS Bataan. Recent posting there says:

    The multipurpose amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5) completed its sixth day of Hurricane Katrina humanitarian relief efforts in the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast region on Sunday, September 4.

    The ship is currently operating 45 miles south of Gulfport , Mississippi and was the first U.S. Navy warship on-station in the Gulf of Mexico . During the first two days of the relief efforts, Bataan steamed 100 miles south of New Orleans and since then she has steamed north to just off the Mississippi coast.

    Four MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopters from Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron Fifteen (HM 15), based out of Corpus Christi, Texas, five MH-60 Sea Hawks from Helicopter Sea Control Squadron Twenty-Eight (HSC 28), based out of Norfolk, Va., and Bataan’s Air Department have conducted flight operations almost around the clock for six days to assist in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

    “We’ve been extremely busy this past week with more tasks than there are hours in a day,” said Cmdr. Jeffrey Bocchicchio, Bataan ’s Air Boss. “The shortest day the department has had was 16 hours long, but they understand that everything we do is critical to the mission.”

    "All of the divisions and Combat Cargo working together allows the ship to have a 24-hour flight deck with the manning for 10-hour days,” said Bocchicchio. “Military units are the nation’s biggest assets and what better use for them than to save our own people.”

    To date, the two squadrons have transported 1,613 displaced people and delivered more than 100,000 pounds of cargo. Bataan also provided 8,000 gallons of fresh drinking water to the ravished Gulfport , Mississippi area. Sailors filled eight 500-gallon water bladders with the ship’s potable water and HM 15’s MH-53 helicopters transported them from the flight deck of Bataan to land.

    The ship also demonstrated her sea power when a Landing Craft Unit from Assault Craft Unit Two (ACU 2), based out of Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek, Va., went up the Mississippi River to conduct a survey of the river just days after the Hurricane ripped through the area. The LCU was gone for three days before returning to the ship’s welldeck.

  • You may be looking at the polls that back you up, here’s an analysis of an abcnews/washington post poll that backs me up:

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1094262&page=1

  • I find it interesting that the mentioned ship has been on station for 9 days conducting operations so i make this article as another bash against the us.

  • This does not suprise me in the least, Bush is and has been out to lunch since taking office.
    What makes me mad is all the people that see him as a GOD and that he can do no wrong,well if being stupid then there would be a whole lot of REP in jail, and half of them should be anyway.

  • I am really tired of running into articles that state that the USS Bataan did nothing. The information that you have here is probably not all inaccurate. I do not know what the goverment did as a whole, but I do know about the Bataan. My husband is on the ship, he was one of those sailors that did volunteered to go to the beach and help, getting sunburn and sleeping in tents when he could have stayed on the ship safe and sound. Now they are once again stuck away from home to go and help. This was the only ship that was not loaded with supplies to go and help because they just happened to be in the area, on their way home after a six week underway, nonetheless. Check their website it would safe you a lot of trouble!

    Proud Bataan Wife