THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 22, 1994 TAG: 9409220455
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ABOARD THE USS MOUNT WHITNEY LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
The Army's navy has arrived in Haiti from Fort Eustis and Fort Story, bringing 16 watercraft to the docks of Port-au-Prince and the first of an estimated 1,400 Virginia soldiers.
Making the 1,800-mile East Coast and Caribbean run in relatively calm weather, the 15 self-propelled vessels, plus one large maintenance barge, carried about 225 crew members from the 7th Transportation Group's base at Fort Eustis in Newport News and from Fort Story in Virginia Beach.
An additional 430 personnel arrived by air Tuesday to begin readying the port for the arrival of a dozen large cargo ships.
In all, about 1,400 soldiers from Fort Eustis and Fort Story will be sent to Haiti, primarily as stevedors and waterfront cargo handlers. The 7th Transportation Group's soldiers have proven before - in the Persian Gulf, Somalian and Rwandan crises - that they can unload military supplies under nearly any conditions.
The first of the large cargo ships to arrive in Port-au-Prince this week carried armored personnel carriers to be used ashore by the 10th Mountain Division's light infantry brigades.
That ship should be emptied in another day, Army Capt. Doug Fraley, a plans officer with the 7th Transportation Group, said Wednesday. Fraley is working aboard the command ship Mount Whitney as a liaison, channeling information about port operations to Joint Task Force 180, which is running the Haitian mission.
The work ahead will require 18-hour workdays in some cases, said Sgt. 1st Class Thomas Jones, a watercraft operator with the liaison group.
``But that's all we do is work,'' Jones said as he recalled the 7th Transportation Group's busy schedule during the past few years, in the Middle East and in Africa.
``The personnel off-loading the ships will have to do physical labor and have the mental endurance to operate in a strange climate,'' Fraley said. ``It's by no means easy right now. They have large crowds to move through.''
The Fort Eustis soldiers were housed initially in a warehouse near the airport at Port-au-Prince. They must travel several miles to reach port operations. They have been well-received by the curious Haitian public, which demonstrated only briefly against its own police force's efforts to keep the crowds away from the docks.
Lessons learned from other deployments, particularly in Somalia, have led the Army to pay more attention to sanitation and security, Fraley said.
``Our experience in Somalia had a lot to do with items we brought this time,'' he said. ``Not that we forgot something, but we learned about some sanitation problems. One thing we learned was that when you go in, even on a humanitarian relief, it doesn't mean people won't be taking potshots at us.
``So we entered here with physical security.''
The Fort Eustis soldiers also learned to tie down everything they brought.
``Even being here on a permissive basis, we still realize that a lot of people don't have the things they want, and we have to consider that,'' Fraley said.
There is no announced plan for how long the Fort Eustis personnel will be in Haiti. In past operations, the Army was able to rotate the troops after a few months.
KEYWORDS: HAITI by CNB