(USS Kearsarge, Caribbean Sea): It was 18:00 on Friday, August 8 at the Coast Guard Air Station in Opa Locka, Florida, a suburban outskirt just outside Miami. Just recovering from a painful red-eye flight from Lima at my oceanfront hotel in South Beach, I was hardly ready to charge those sky chopping SH-60 birds that were about to airlift us how to a sailing LHD in pursuit of the Mosquito Coast. But on with the neck choking flight vest and the ear deafening helmets, I along with a Navy air crew and a globe-trotting NGO worker jumped into those "toilets" at three o'clock. That's at least what our receiver Marine Gunnery Seargant Basso called them, as the old choppers do leak condensation on their passengers in flight. In his experiences flying, Basso recounted his time on the sister CH-53s, the largest helicopter in the U.S. military. Though those steal air frames won't "expire" till "they're put to sleep in Arizona" according to one of the female crew members aboard, they aren't pleasing to the Navy whites. They aren't pleasing to the air weary either. If you find banking in commercial aircraft gut-wrenching, try fierce sixty degree turns in descent to your desired destination. But these guys know what they're doing. The helicopter fell in line with the USS Kearsarge, the large vessel that had previously hit the shores of Bangladesh in 2006 for a relief mission.

The Kearsarge's Mission in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua is the first of its kind, at least according to Commodore Frank Ponds, the well-built African American commander of the ship. Ponds distinguished this upcoming mission from earlier excursions such as Bangladesh because of the latter's responsiveness to a natural disaster. The commander also cited the 2006 Quadrennial Report (1) from the Department of Defense as projecting a new element for "unity  of effort" in U.S. defense policy, ostensibly "making friends" in the region. When I pressed the commander on larger strategic motives with regard to regional belligerence he stayed mum, dismissing the Navy's role as "non-political (2)."  

But the United States' distribution of economic aid is certainly nothing new, nor is the military's relationship with geopolitics inextricable. For his part, General David Petreaus's leadership in the remarkable counter-insurgency in Iraq is grounded in the American tradition of the renaissance military man; one that can be as multi-faceted as a fighter, medic, humanitarian worker, and political mediator. This is evident as early as in Army Brigadier General Leonard Wood's term as military governor of Cuba following the Spanish American War. After the Spanish surrender of Cuba in 1899, the Harvard Medical School graduate "earned a notable reputation there as an administrator, establishing modern educational, judicial, and police systems and overseeing great advances in sanitation (3)," as well as bringing the outbreak of yellow fever under control (4). Cuba, as a result, was effectively leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of Latin America in terms of development.  Though this mission is certainly not about the United States exerting direct application of the Monroe Doctrine and commanding power over the impoverished nation, there does emanate an element of "soft power" which one of the free-lance reporters on board persuaded Ponds to admit. More specifically, Ponds does see humanitarian assistance "as a core element of maritime strategy," and emphasized the collective goal for "Nicaragua to increase its own capacity" as he does "expect to see improvements" before the Kearsarge disembarks to its next port. Ponds also did admit that the mission to Nicaragua is about "strategic communication" and that he hopes to "win hearts and minds" not through the blind hopefulness of positive coverage, but when his crew makes contact and provides essential medical care for patients in Puerto Cabezas (1).

To much surprise, patients and their supporting family members are to be airlifted to the ship for surgeries, while less invasive surgeries will be done on site. According to a medic on board, HMC Casey Jacobs, on a previous mission to Guatemala, the Navy filled 1,300 prescriptions, and will likely treat patients for lingering conditions that would otherwise persist because of lack of medical care at home. The Kearsarge appears to be built better for such missions. According to one medic, the triage shop on the lower deck dwarfs even larger carriers with four operating rooms and six ward beds as the more nimble ships carry marines who are accordingly airlifted from battle zones.

As apart of the Quadrennial 2006, also aboard the ship are several Canadians, two Brazilians, and two Dutchmen serving as medical augmentees. They were invited to learn the U.S. practice of tropical medicine. Interestingly enough, in my conversations with one of the Brazilian surgeons (with the little Portuguese I know, "Tudo Bem?"), Lt. Ricardo Guimaraes, I found that three years ago, the U.S. Navy approached the Lula government for a larger contingent of Brazilian sailors to participate in soft power missions, but were subsequently turned down as Brazil apparently has no need to conduct such types of missions. Ricardo told me the Brazilians are committed to a policy of neutrality because of their "marriage of inconvenience" with Hugo Chavez's Venezuela and Evo Morales's Bolivia, to whom they are respectfully the recipients of petroleum and natural gas. Ostensibly, Lt. Ricardo and his comrade nephrologist Lt. Cmdr. Tomaz Carmo were tokens in a counter proposal: help the United States provide medical care in return for technology transfer to remedy maladies in Brazil. Just as yellow fever, malaria, and dengue are prevalent on the Mosquito Coast, so are they prevalent through the jungles of Amazonia and the streets of Rio de Janeiro (where dengue has infected 100,000 residents according to Guimaraes).

But Lt. Ricardo wasn't without optimism for future Luso-American relations. Describing his country's relationship with Chavez and Morales as "a marriage of inconvenience," he foresees greater contingencies and joint operations between our two nations.  After all, Ricardo explained that the U.S. military is conducting training exercises off the coast of the South American country in preparation for operations in Iraq. Lt. Cmdr. Tomaz, for his part, was more exuberant than the reserved Lt. Ricardo, emphasizing to me that of the two conventional schools of medicine in the world, "American and European," they always choose American (5).

The Kearsage's mission is also being supplemented by Marine and Air Force personnel, who have seemingly found a new respect for the Navy's work. Accordingly, sailors often get beleaguered with the unfair reputation as "soft." Though some personnel eagerly await stories from the war zone, life on a ship is truly "a calling" as Robert Kaplan describes (6). With long tours away from home (this mission is four months); some personnel have spent the majority of their Navy life underway.  Whether it's operating radar machines, assisting in the dangerous procedure of flight ops, or powering the ship in the excruciating heat of engineering, it's tempting to take at face value the façade of casual hallway briefings and mess gatherings in the wardroom. The work is rigorous, tiresome, and there is always a call to duty at any time during the day and night.

A petty officer I spoke with disagreed. As an old hand, he emphasized "that he has seen at all." During his tenure in the Navy he described the cultural change as radical and hyper innovative: "they took Tradition out of the Navy's motto. It used to be Honor, Courage, and Tradition, and then it became Honor, Courage, and Commitment." He described the heavy reliance on technological power and the authorization of women to board ships in 1994 as poignant factors in assuaging to the culture. "They wanted to create a kinder, gentler Navy," the petty officer explained. "If the computers ever went down, we (old hands) would be the only ones able to save this ship (7)." As a prime example, gone are the ancient maritime days of celestial navigation, and in is a new era of GPS monitoring.

Though this new generation of technocrats has become increasingly independent, unlike in Marine and Army life, there is still the traditional segregation in rank structure on a mission due to the size and convenience of Navy vessels. While the Navy maintains distant quarters and fraternize in separate mess halls, the Army and Marines in all ranks "eat, sleep, sh**, and die together (7)."    

Conversely, the Navy's systematic culture of rank segregation doesn't displace an inherent culture of pride and camaraderie, as there is a noble respect for enlisted expertise on the ship. I saw this pride first hand in my conversation with the beachmaster, CWO3 (Chief Warrant Officer 3) Richard Barr. Warrant Officer Barr's responsibility is to lead the security and delivery of cargo, medical supplies, and personnel for the mission.

With the requirement of piloting aircraft and vessels reserved for officers, Barr underlined an important detail about amphibious operations: that the single LCU (Landing Craft Unit) and two LCM 8s (Landing Craft Mechanicals) aboard are to be fully manned my enlisted men (8).

At about 16:00 on August 11, 2008, the USS Kearsarge dropped anchor in Puerto Cabezas. With Nicaraguan fishing boats creeping towards the ship from the dim-lit shore line, the Navy sent out patrol boats and gunners to stroll the cat walk. The next morning, they hit the shores of the Mosquito Coast. Stay tuned.

References:

1. 2006 Quadrennial Report. Department of Defense. 2006
2. Press Conference Commodore Frank Ponds. 9 August 2008.
3. "Leonard Wood." Encyclopedia Brittanica 2006.
4. "Leonard Wood." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2006.
5. Interview with Brazilian Medical Officers Lt. Ricardo Guimaraes and Lt. Cmdr. Tomaz Carpo.
6. Kaplan, Robert D. Hog Pilots Blue Water Grunts. The American Military in Air, at Sea, and on the Ground. New York: Random House, 2007.
7. Interview with Anonymous Petty Officer. 9 August 2008.
8. Interview with CWO3 Richard Barr. 11. August 2008.

Photo Credits:
All Photos By Jonathan Constantine

Related:
Constantine, Jonathan. "EXCLUSIVE: Sandinista Daniel Ortega to Board U.S. Navy Vessel." Red County. 16 August 2008.