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BMU 2 Provides Humanitarian Relief to Haiti

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS100206-02
Release Date: 2/6/2010 8:27:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class (SW/AW) Martin Cuaron, USS Gunston Hall Public Affairs

KILLICK, HAITI (NNS) -- In the weeks following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the Sailors from Beach Master Unit (BMU) 2 have been working together to provide a wide range of services to support the ongoing humanitarian relief efforts at the Killick Haitian Coast Guard Base.

BMU 2 is embarked aboard USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44), deployed in support of Operation Unified Response, providing humanitarian aid and medical support to the Haitian people.

"It's been non-stop," said Information Systems Technician 1st Class (SW) Eric Lake, assigned to BMU 2, who added that the Mk. 8 or "mike" boats, come, "loaded to the hilt with somewhere between 500-600 pounds of goods or more and we've been moving it out. I know we've distributed about 20,000 meals already just to the patients and to the volunteers and out in town."

But offloading and distributing humanitarian supplies is only one small portion of what they do. These men and women are taking on multiple roles, which not only helps out the people out in town, but the ones on base as well.

"We have personnel at the gate to help people transit patients from the gate to the medical personnel," said Chief Boatswain's Mate (SW) Patrick Bedford, also assigned to BMU 2. "We also provide food for the patients and their family members that are staying here with them," as well as the 100 or so volunteers helping out on the base, Bedford added.

"I think the effort is a joint effort here, I think the work that is being put in by everyone is tremendous. Here at this site, we could see the effects we have on the people, the personnel that are coming in and out," said Bedford. "Talking to the locals here, they love us. The kids enjoy us even though we don't understand each other. The camaraderie that is being built here is tremendous."

One challenge the team faced, but had the potential to help save hundreds of Haitian lives, was to establish a landing zone for medical evacuations out of a debris-filled soccer field.

Working alongside Gunston Hall Sailors, they were able to clear out debris, dig a drainage trench and build an "LZ" large enough to land two helicopters at a time. Working along with an experienced F-18 pilot from Navy Information Operations Center-Norfolk, they were averaging 75 medical evacuations a day for the first three to four days.

But it was a challenge at first to get everyone on the same page, said Lake.

"Logistically one of the main problems was we didn't have communications at all with (all the helicopters coming in), and we're not set up to work with aviation, so we took one of our (high-frequency) radios and set it to establish communication with (everyone) and then it was just learning how to bring them in and where to position them on the soccer field.

"We were literally running around to one side to the other trying to figure out where to put them because there were so many people coming out," Lake said.

After the first week, the mission for BMU 2 switched to providing base security and offloading humanitarian supplies, getting them ready for transportation to the local community.

They also had one final duty, one that was unofficial, but meant the most to them: providing friendship for the kids hospitalized on the base.

"We have kids on the base right now with no moms, no dads, pretty much surviving by themselves" Bedford said.

"You see the kids here and you kind of take ownership of them because you have so much interaction with them and you feel as though the resolve that they have and the strength that they have is just amazing," said Lake.

From forklift driving, to night security watches, to landing helicopters on a grassy soccer field, to being a friend, the 21 Sailors from BMU 2 work seven days a week to provide as much humanitarian aid for the earthquake victims as possible.

Gunston Hall, a Whidbey Island-class amphibious dock-landing ship, was originally scheduled for a deployment to Africa in support of Africa Partnership Station (APS) West, but was diverted to help Haitian relief operations as part of Operation Unified Response.