gkainz
Final Approach
from my inbox today...
----------------------------------------
From: Martin, Richard, CIV, NAVWARCOL
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 4:02 PM
To: _OPS-FAC
Subject: From CO USS IWO JIMA in New Orleans
Courtesy of Mike Tollefson (former 4th deck guy).
Dick Martin
Joint Maritime Operations
College of Distance Education
Naval War College
>From CO USS IWO JIMA in New Orleans
Interesting perspective on the Navy's involvement in Hurricane Katrina relief:
Subject: IWO Update - 6 Sep 05
Hello All;
Since I took over IWO JIMA over a year ago, I felt as though I had control
of the destiny of the ship. I thought I lost it today, the first time ever,
and that we were merely reacting to events rather than controlling them.
Within the first 24 hours after arriving pierside in New Orleans, IWO JIMA
has become many things. We are one of the few full service airports in the
area and have been operating aircraft on and off our deck for almost 15
hours each day. We are also one of the only air conditioned facilities
within a ten mile radius and though we have had problems making water from
the polluted Mississippi, we are also the only hot shower within miles. All
day long we have been accommodating local policemen, firemen, state
troopers, national guard, 82nd Airborne division personnel with hot showers
and hot food. I met an ambulance team from Minnesota who just drove
straight to New Orleans when they heard of the tragedy and have been
supporting hospitals free of charge for the last week. They hadn't had a
hot meal in over a week and were grateful to have the opportunity to have
lunch onboard. The Deputy Commander of the RI National Guard reported to me
that he had guardsmen who were whipped, but after a hot shower and an IWO
JIMA breakfast were ready to hit the patrols again. Rarely have I seen so
many smiling, happy faces than on these people. After two weeks in the
trenches sleeping on concrete floors, no shower, and eating MREs, good ship
IWO JIMA has been a Godsend. I had an opportunity to talk to the Director
of Homeland Security for a few minutes in my cabin. I asked him if there
was anything more I could do for him, he asked if he could get a shower. I
was glad to turnover my cabin to him. The local FEMA coordinator and his
logistics and security teams were on my quarterdeck this afternoon asking
permission to set up their command center on the pier next to the ship.
While they had sophisticated command and control equipment, they had no
place to berth their 250 FEMA members. We were glad to give them a home.
Contrary to the press, all the FEMA people I met had been on station since
last Sunday (before the Hurricane hit), never left the area, and have been
in the field ever since. The command duty officer was told that one state
trooper had driven 80 miles to get to the ship. He said that the word was
out: Come to IWO JIMA. We expect that the flood gates will open on us.
Early this morning we received our first medical emergency: an elderly woman
with stroke-like symptoms. Throughout the day we received about a dozen
medical emergencies, the most serious was an elderly man who was stabbed in
the chest and was bleeding to death. The doctors performed surgery on him
and saved his life. I toured the hospital ward; all our charges were
elderly and disadvantaged individuals. As with Hotel IWO JIMA, we expect to
see many more casualties tomorrow.
Our curse appears to be our flight deck and our extraordinary command and
control capabilities. Our challenge today was the tidal wave of Flag and
General Officers that flooded onboard, 17 total, virtually all without
notice. I couldn't believe there were so many involved in this effort and
they all wanted to come here. They poured onto the flight deck in one
helicopter after another in order to meet with General Honore, the Joint
Task Force Commander. The majority showed up around the same time and all
wanted to leave at the same time, making it a nightmare for our flight deck
team to control and coordinate flights on and off the ship for all these
admirals and generals while supporting the humanitarian effort. I spent
most of the day running around the ship getting these people off and on
helicopters and in and out of the meetings and command spaces. It was like
herding cats. But the ship performed superbly and "flexed" to meet the
challenge. Regretfully, we expect nearly 20 admirals and generals onboard
tomorrow for more meetings. To add to the challenges, virtually all of
these commands are sending liaison staffs to help coordinate issues, and
already a number of admirals and generals have "permanently" embarked. The
Inn is full.
I talked to one of the FEMA team members who had also worked the disaster
relief for 9/11. I asked him how much more difficult was the Katrina relief
effort compared to 9/11. He said it was without measure:
thousand of times worse than 9/11. He couldn't articulate the magnitude of
the destruction.
Despite all the challenges, I think we regained control by the end of the
day. We are forearmed for tomorrow's onslaught. At our evening Dept Head
meeting, I asked all my principals to tell me what the stupidest thing they
heard or saw today. The list was enormous. But the most absurd item was
when my Tactical Action Officer, who runs our
24 hour command center (CIC) got a phone call from the Director of the New
Orleans Zoo. Apparently, there was a large fire near the zoo. It was so
intense that the fire department had to abandon the cause, but military
helos were heavily engaged in scooping up giant buckets of water and dumping
in on the blaze in an effort to put it out. The director complained to us
that the noise from the helos was disturbing the animals, especially the
elephants, which he was most concerned about, and asked us to stop. The TAO
thanked him for his interest in national defense.
It is inspiring to meet and talk to such a huge number of individuals who
are doing the Lord's work to recover this city. They have had little sleep,
little food, no showers, working 16-18 hours a day, and in some cases no
pay, and they are thanking ME for a hot meal! Only in America. We have
turned the corner. It will take an awful long time, but we have turned the
corner.
All the best,
RSC
________________________________
Subject: IWO Update - 7 Sep 05
Hello All;
We finally had a chance to have Captain's Call this morning. The ship has
been running at full speed for 8 days straight with a myriad of changing
missions and requirements piled on top of us. I thought it best to tell the
crew where I thought this was going and what impact we have made. I told
them that as with any contingency operations there is that initial surge of
energy and inspiration that often times gives way to frustration and tedium;
I did not want them to underestimate the magnitude of what they were
accomplishing each day by their hard work on the flight deck, the galley,
the well deck, CIC, Radio Central (JMC), on the pier, and in the engineering
spaces to support this great undertaking. Every job on the ship is
important and the contribution of IWO JIMA has already been enormous.
Our contributions have been growing. Today, we opened out doors to
900-1,200 Army, National Guard, and local law enforcement personnel to take
showers and get hot meals. We were getting overwhelmed. There was a steady
stream of 60 to 100 every hour on the quarterdeck asking to come onboard and
get refreshed. The word has obviously gotten out. One Army Captain told
the Command Master Chief that his unit of 60 soldiers had come from 60 miles
away because his general told him to "go to IWO JIMA and they'll take care
of you." We couldn't say no.
Not satisfied with the record-setting flight operations yesterday, the
flight deck team nearly doubled the number of aircraft hits. At one point
the team was bringing in Army Blackhawks two at a time, one group after
another in perfect sequence. It was an impressive sight to behold. Medical
casualties continued to come onboard the ship, some by stretcher and
ambulance, others by air or boat. After yesterday, the Medical folks
reworked their procedures, so today everything flowed smoothly. Supply
department has served up thousands of meals; the mess line never closes.
Deck department got back to their roots and conducted boat operations and a
sterngate marriage with TORTUGA's LCM-8 landing craft, moving more supplies
to our sister ship. But lest we forget, the bedrock of IWO JIMA's strength
lies in three simple things:
electricity, air conditioning, hot water - all provided by the uncomplaining
engineers.
But of all the manifold capabilities of good ship IWO JIMA, medical,
logistic, and air support, our command and control capabilities have moved
to the forefront. It almost sounds surreal but IWO JIMA has literally
become the headquarters, the "center of the universe" for all Federal
recovery efforts - DoD as well as civilian. It is on this ship that the
myriad efforts have all come together. Yesterday, for the first time ever,
some 17 admirals and generals got together with the Joint Task Force
Commander, General Honore, face to face to coordinate the numerous and ever
growing military recovery and support efforts.
Today, the same cadre of admirals and generals were back onboard but this
time accompanied by the civilian side. FEMA has now established their
headquarters on the pier along side (and onboard IWO JIMA) to better
coordinate their efforts with us. But with this has come an ever growing
number of staff members embarking on the ship. Our population has grown
from a crew of some 1,200 to nearly 2,500 (including several hundred
guardsmen and soldiers living onboard) with all the detachments, augments,
and now senior staffs. I think we are now up to one three-star, one
two-star, and four one-stars embarked good ship IWO JIMA. We are bursting
at the seams. We have spent the vast majority of our days taking care of
and chasing down the myriad staff members. It is like herding cats, except
these cats fly on and off our flight deck periodically.
I had a chance to meet Governor Blanco of Louisiana and her Lieutenant
Governor today when she came onboard for the giant 1200 briefing with
General Honore and were later joined by Admiral Nathman and Vice Admiral
Fitzgerald. The ships Ready Room was bursting at the seams with senior
officers and high officials - you had to step outside just to change your
mind. I had seen the Governor on TV many times. She looked different in
person: tired and worn out. She told me that she was averaging about 4
hours of sleep a night, but smiled, "I guess that's about what you get in
the military." You could see the severe strain of the past weeks events. I
quoted her the famous line from Churchill the night be became Prime Minister
of wartime Britain, "that it was as if I were walking with Destiny, and that
all of my past life had been but preparation for this moment and this
trial." The recovery from the damage of Hurricane Katrina is an
unprecedented trial for the Governor and many, many others. My observation
is that America, throughtout her history, has always been slow to respond,
but once that powerful engine gets into gear it is massive and unstoppable.
I suspect this will also be the case for the Gulf Coast.
It has become our tradition at the evening department head meeting to go
around the room and have each person list the stupidest or silliest thing
they heard or saw during the day. As you can imagine, the log book is
overflowing with accounts. Yesterday it was the helos and the elephants at
the zoo. Today it was me. I have been inundated with doing interviews:
CNN, Pentagon press, Regina Mobley and Channel 13 news, the Boston Globe,
Carla McCabe and the Army Times, and finally Greta Van Susturen. We did a
spot with Greta on the pier this morning with the massive bow of IWO JIMA in
the background and helos flying on and off the ship with great noise - an
impressive backdrop for this puffed up officer. As I was being interviewed
by Greta, a pair of Blackhawks swooped onto the flight deck sending up a
great wind which blew off my ball cap. I instinctively scrambled after it
before it blew into the water. When I turned around the FOX News
photographer looked at me and smiled, "I got that on film."
Look for me chasing my hat down the pier on the next Fox News spot.
All the best,
RSC
----------------------------------------
From: Martin, Richard, CIV, NAVWARCOL
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 4:02 PM
To: _OPS-FAC
Subject: From CO USS IWO JIMA in New Orleans
Courtesy of Mike Tollefson (former 4th deck guy).
Dick Martin
Joint Maritime Operations
College of Distance Education
Naval War College
>From CO USS IWO JIMA in New Orleans
Interesting perspective on the Navy's involvement in Hurricane Katrina relief:
Subject: IWO Update - 6 Sep 05
Hello All;
Since I took over IWO JIMA over a year ago, I felt as though I had control
of the destiny of the ship. I thought I lost it today, the first time ever,
and that we were merely reacting to events rather than controlling them.
Within the first 24 hours after arriving pierside in New Orleans, IWO JIMA
has become many things. We are one of the few full service airports in the
area and have been operating aircraft on and off our deck for almost 15
hours each day. We are also one of the only air conditioned facilities
within a ten mile radius and though we have had problems making water from
the polluted Mississippi, we are also the only hot shower within miles. All
day long we have been accommodating local policemen, firemen, state
troopers, national guard, 82nd Airborne division personnel with hot showers
and hot food. I met an ambulance team from Minnesota who just drove
straight to New Orleans when they heard of the tragedy and have been
supporting hospitals free of charge for the last week. They hadn't had a
hot meal in over a week and were grateful to have the opportunity to have
lunch onboard. The Deputy Commander of the RI National Guard reported to me
that he had guardsmen who were whipped, but after a hot shower and an IWO
JIMA breakfast were ready to hit the patrols again. Rarely have I seen so
many smiling, happy faces than on these people. After two weeks in the
trenches sleeping on concrete floors, no shower, and eating MREs, good ship
IWO JIMA has been a Godsend. I had an opportunity to talk to the Director
of Homeland Security for a few minutes in my cabin. I asked him if there
was anything more I could do for him, he asked if he could get a shower. I
was glad to turnover my cabin to him. The local FEMA coordinator and his
logistics and security teams were on my quarterdeck this afternoon asking
permission to set up their command center on the pier next to the ship.
While they had sophisticated command and control equipment, they had no
place to berth their 250 FEMA members. We were glad to give them a home.
Contrary to the press, all the FEMA people I met had been on station since
last Sunday (before the Hurricane hit), never left the area, and have been
in the field ever since. The command duty officer was told that one state
trooper had driven 80 miles to get to the ship. He said that the word was
out: Come to IWO JIMA. We expect that the flood gates will open on us.
Early this morning we received our first medical emergency: an elderly woman
with stroke-like symptoms. Throughout the day we received about a dozen
medical emergencies, the most serious was an elderly man who was stabbed in
the chest and was bleeding to death. The doctors performed surgery on him
and saved his life. I toured the hospital ward; all our charges were
elderly and disadvantaged individuals. As with Hotel IWO JIMA, we expect to
see many more casualties tomorrow.
Our curse appears to be our flight deck and our extraordinary command and
control capabilities. Our challenge today was the tidal wave of Flag and
General Officers that flooded onboard, 17 total, virtually all without
notice. I couldn't believe there were so many involved in this effort and
they all wanted to come here. They poured onto the flight deck in one
helicopter after another in order to meet with General Honore, the Joint
Task Force Commander. The majority showed up around the same time and all
wanted to leave at the same time, making it a nightmare for our flight deck
team to control and coordinate flights on and off the ship for all these
admirals and generals while supporting the humanitarian effort. I spent
most of the day running around the ship getting these people off and on
helicopters and in and out of the meetings and command spaces. It was like
herding cats. But the ship performed superbly and "flexed" to meet the
challenge. Regretfully, we expect nearly 20 admirals and generals onboard
tomorrow for more meetings. To add to the challenges, virtually all of
these commands are sending liaison staffs to help coordinate issues, and
already a number of admirals and generals have "permanently" embarked. The
Inn is full.
I talked to one of the FEMA team members who had also worked the disaster
relief for 9/11. I asked him how much more difficult was the Katrina relief
effort compared to 9/11. He said it was without measure:
thousand of times worse than 9/11. He couldn't articulate the magnitude of
the destruction.
Despite all the challenges, I think we regained control by the end of the
day. We are forearmed for tomorrow's onslaught. At our evening Dept Head
meeting, I asked all my principals to tell me what the stupidest thing they
heard or saw today. The list was enormous. But the most absurd item was
when my Tactical Action Officer, who runs our
24 hour command center (CIC) got a phone call from the Director of the New
Orleans Zoo. Apparently, there was a large fire near the zoo. It was so
intense that the fire department had to abandon the cause, but military
helos were heavily engaged in scooping up giant buckets of water and dumping
in on the blaze in an effort to put it out. The director complained to us
that the noise from the helos was disturbing the animals, especially the
elephants, which he was most concerned about, and asked us to stop. The TAO
thanked him for his interest in national defense.
It is inspiring to meet and talk to such a huge number of individuals who
are doing the Lord's work to recover this city. They have had little sleep,
little food, no showers, working 16-18 hours a day, and in some cases no
pay, and they are thanking ME for a hot meal! Only in America. We have
turned the corner. It will take an awful long time, but we have turned the
corner.
All the best,
RSC
________________________________
Subject: IWO Update - 7 Sep 05
Hello All;
We finally had a chance to have Captain's Call this morning. The ship has
been running at full speed for 8 days straight with a myriad of changing
missions and requirements piled on top of us. I thought it best to tell the
crew where I thought this was going and what impact we have made. I told
them that as with any contingency operations there is that initial surge of
energy and inspiration that often times gives way to frustration and tedium;
I did not want them to underestimate the magnitude of what they were
accomplishing each day by their hard work on the flight deck, the galley,
the well deck, CIC, Radio Central (JMC), on the pier, and in the engineering
spaces to support this great undertaking. Every job on the ship is
important and the contribution of IWO JIMA has already been enormous.
Our contributions have been growing. Today, we opened out doors to
900-1,200 Army, National Guard, and local law enforcement personnel to take
showers and get hot meals. We were getting overwhelmed. There was a steady
stream of 60 to 100 every hour on the quarterdeck asking to come onboard and
get refreshed. The word has obviously gotten out. One Army Captain told
the Command Master Chief that his unit of 60 soldiers had come from 60 miles
away because his general told him to "go to IWO JIMA and they'll take care
of you." We couldn't say no.
Not satisfied with the record-setting flight operations yesterday, the
flight deck team nearly doubled the number of aircraft hits. At one point
the team was bringing in Army Blackhawks two at a time, one group after
another in perfect sequence. It was an impressive sight to behold. Medical
casualties continued to come onboard the ship, some by stretcher and
ambulance, others by air or boat. After yesterday, the Medical folks
reworked their procedures, so today everything flowed smoothly. Supply
department has served up thousands of meals; the mess line never closes.
Deck department got back to their roots and conducted boat operations and a
sterngate marriage with TORTUGA's LCM-8 landing craft, moving more supplies
to our sister ship. But lest we forget, the bedrock of IWO JIMA's strength
lies in three simple things:
electricity, air conditioning, hot water - all provided by the uncomplaining
engineers.
But of all the manifold capabilities of good ship IWO JIMA, medical,
logistic, and air support, our command and control capabilities have moved
to the forefront. It almost sounds surreal but IWO JIMA has literally
become the headquarters, the "center of the universe" for all Federal
recovery efforts - DoD as well as civilian. It is on this ship that the
myriad efforts have all come together. Yesterday, for the first time ever,
some 17 admirals and generals got together with the Joint Task Force
Commander, General Honore, face to face to coordinate the numerous and ever
growing military recovery and support efforts.
Today, the same cadre of admirals and generals were back onboard but this
time accompanied by the civilian side. FEMA has now established their
headquarters on the pier along side (and onboard IWO JIMA) to better
coordinate their efforts with us. But with this has come an ever growing
number of staff members embarking on the ship. Our population has grown
from a crew of some 1,200 to nearly 2,500 (including several hundred
guardsmen and soldiers living onboard) with all the detachments, augments,
and now senior staffs. I think we are now up to one three-star, one
two-star, and four one-stars embarked good ship IWO JIMA. We are bursting
at the seams. We have spent the vast majority of our days taking care of
and chasing down the myriad staff members. It is like herding cats, except
these cats fly on and off our flight deck periodically.
I had a chance to meet Governor Blanco of Louisiana and her Lieutenant
Governor today when she came onboard for the giant 1200 briefing with
General Honore and were later joined by Admiral Nathman and Vice Admiral
Fitzgerald. The ships Ready Room was bursting at the seams with senior
officers and high officials - you had to step outside just to change your
mind. I had seen the Governor on TV many times. She looked different in
person: tired and worn out. She told me that she was averaging about 4
hours of sleep a night, but smiled, "I guess that's about what you get in
the military." You could see the severe strain of the past weeks events. I
quoted her the famous line from Churchill the night be became Prime Minister
of wartime Britain, "that it was as if I were walking with Destiny, and that
all of my past life had been but preparation for this moment and this
trial." The recovery from the damage of Hurricane Katrina is an
unprecedented trial for the Governor and many, many others. My observation
is that America, throughtout her history, has always been slow to respond,
but once that powerful engine gets into gear it is massive and unstoppable.
I suspect this will also be the case for the Gulf Coast.
It has become our tradition at the evening department head meeting to go
around the room and have each person list the stupidest or silliest thing
they heard or saw during the day. As you can imagine, the log book is
overflowing with accounts. Yesterday it was the helos and the elephants at
the zoo. Today it was me. I have been inundated with doing interviews:
CNN, Pentagon press, Regina Mobley and Channel 13 news, the Boston Globe,
Carla McCabe and the Army Times, and finally Greta Van Susturen. We did a
spot with Greta on the pier this morning with the massive bow of IWO JIMA in
the background and helos flying on and off the ship with great noise - an
impressive backdrop for this puffed up officer. As I was being interviewed
by Greta, a pair of Blackhawks swooped onto the flight deck sending up a
great wind which blew off my ball cap. I instinctively scrambled after it
before it blew into the water. When I turned around the FOX News
photographer looked at me and smiled, "I got that on film."
Look for me chasing my hat down the pier on the next Fox News spot.
All the best,
RSC
Last edited:
