ACIBC Fact Sheet: Humanitarian
Following the 2004 Asian tsunami, a
Hospital
Corpsman, assigned to USS
Abraham Lincoln
(CVN 72),
checks the
blood pressure of an
Indonesian
man
at the Sultan Iskandar Muda
Air Force
Base, Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia.
- In emergency or relief efforts, aircraft carriers can provide:
- Enough space to support a crew of 3,200, an air wing of nearly 2,500 personnel and a command staff of more than 100 personnel.
- A food services department capable of serving 18,000 to 20,000 meals per day.
- A well-equipped, 50-bed hospital manned by six doctors, including a surgeon.
- A dental clinic with five dental officers capable of caring for as many as 70 patients per day.
- The U.S. Navy dispatched an aircraft carrier to assist with relief operations after the Southeast Asian tsunami in December 2004. The carrier's surveillance aircraft conducted survey operations, including search-and-rescue efforts, and cargo planes delivered supplies from Bangkok to affected areas.
- In June 2008, the USS Ronald Reagan was called upon to use its mobility, storage capability and air wing to deliver hundreds of thousands of pounds of relief supplies to typhoon victims in the Philippines. Arriving only 36 hours after the natural disaster hit, aircraft from the carrier group proceeded to fly for eight consecutive days, delivering more than 519,000 pounds of fresh water, rice and medical supplies. "These people were on the brink of despair," said USS Ronald Reagan commanding officer Captain Kenneth Norton. "We rolled right in, we got ourselves organized and we got our folks on the beach and helped quickly."