US and Australia wind up quake operation
US and Australian military personnel helping with
At a ceremony in a massive hangar at the Qasim Army Aviation Base in
Against the backdrop of a giant US
A Pakistani soldier recited a Koranic verse and an American trooper read a passage from the Bible, before military bands played national anthems of the three countries under fluttering national flags.
“The numbers tell an incredible story. This is the longest disaster assistance effort in US military history,” Crocker told reporters and military officials.
“In terms of the scale and scope it is the largest humanitarian assistance mission since the (1948) Berlin airlift. “You have written history in a very major way and you have also written a new chapter in the way that nations worked together,” Crocker said.
US Disaster Assistance Center Commander Rear Admiral Michael LeFever’s voice cracked repeatedly as he thanked the Pakistani military for their cooperation and said it was “bittersweet” to be leaving.
“I will never forget how we teamed together as one team to help those who were suffering,” the emotional LeFever said.
Major General Javed Aslam, commander of Pakistan Army Aviation, said the Chinooks and other choppers were seen as “angels of mercy” by the victims of the quake. Pakistani authorities have fixed Friday as the deadline for the formal end of rescue operations and the beginning of the rebuilding phase. Many roads have now reopened to villages that were previously only accessible by chopper.
Dozens of countries contributed military helicopters to the aid effort, along with the United Nations. US forces arrived in Pakistan within 48 hours of the 7.6-magnitude temblor and at the peak of their operations they had around 25 helicopters. It now has six left in Pakistan, two of them leaving Thursday and the rest on Friday.
With some 2,000 military personnel in Pakistan, the Chinooks flew more than 5,000 sorties delivering more than 14,000 tonnes of relief supplies. They transported 19,000 people including victims, military and aid workers.
Australia had around 140 personnel in Pakistan and its four Black Hawks were mainly used in medical evacuation missions.
“Our boys have flown a year’s worth in four months,” senior Australian officer Colonel Andy Sims told AFP after the ceremony. “We will be giving them a month off.” With the departure of the US and Australian contingents the United Nations will have 13 helicopters available in Pakistan. But it says it urgently needs 24 million US dollars to keep them delivering food and medical supplies until August 2006.
Source: Daily Times
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment