It seems like yesterday.
The Wikipedia entry has most of the superlatives, deadliest recorded tsunami, deadliest natural disaster of the 21st century, strongest earthquake in Asia etc.
A couple later reflections; The outro from August 2023's "Singapore's Navy Has Taken Delivery Of The First Of Four New German-Built Attack Submarines":
....After the Indian Ocean earthquake (magnitude 9.1) and tsunami (up to a reported 100 feet high) killed 228,000 people, the world rushed in to search for and rescue the survivors. The United Nations contingent did the United Nations thing as recounted in a 2020 post on the big hospital ship, USNS Mercy:
...WFP (World Food Program) has "arrived" in the capital with an "assessment and coordination team." The following is no joke; no Diplomad attempt to be funny or clever: The team has spent the day and will likely spend a few more setting up their "coordination and opcenter" at a local five-star hotel. And their number one concern, even before phones, fax and copy machines? Arranging for the hotel to provide 24hr catering service. USAID folks already are cracking jokes about "The UN Sheraton." Meanwhile, our military and civilians, working with the super Aussies, continue to keep the C-130 air bridge of supplies flowing and the choppers flying, and keep on saving lives -- and without 24hr catering services from any five-star hotel . . . . The contrast grows more stark every minute.
As noted at the time:
The American and Royal Australian Navies were actually saving lives:
[don't forget the Singaporean helicopter pilots shuttling to the carrier and Mercy 24/7]
Aceh,
Sumatra, Indonesia (Jan. 3, 2005) - Lt. Jody Weinstein helps an injured
Indonesian woman into a medical evacuation vehicle after she was
transported from a coastal village on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia.
Medical teams from USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), Carrier Air Wing Two
(CVW-2) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) set-up a
triage site located on Sultan Iskandar Muda Air Force Base, in Banda
Aceh, Sumatra. The two teams worked together with members of the
Australian Air Force to provide initial medical care to victims of the
Tsunami-stricken coastal regions. The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike
Group is currently operating in the Indian Ocean off the waters of
Indonesia and Thailand. U.S. Navy photo by Photographers Mate Airman
Jordon R. Beesley (RELEASED)
|
In all, the American Task Force numbered more than twenty ships, headed up by the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72 or "Abe"):
Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia
The USS Abraham Lincoln follows the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy after arriving on station near Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia, Feb. 3, 2005. The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group has been operating in the Indian Ocean off the waters of Indonesia in support of Operation Unified Assistance, the humanitarian relief effort to aid the victims of the tsunami.
-U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Gabriel R. Piper
I don't have much time for self-appointed "elites".
The thing I remember about those Singaporean pilots is: they wouldn't stop. It was always "one more flight", "one more village to check", one more landing and take-off in a freshly cleared landing zone. If the Singaporean submariners are anything like those pilots anyone going up against them will have their hands full, to say the least.
