[Gathnet] The boys are on the way home.

[stuart gathman]

We’re on our way home!

I’m home in about 10 days! We’ll be in Hawaii this week, and my kids 
will be flying out and riding back with us!

I love you very much! I miss getting to see my Mom and my Dad 
frequently!!! I sure am glad I live in San Diego now!

Speaking of which, that was a good game yesterday, huh? J We get live TV 
out here… isn’t technology great! J

See you soon!

Jim

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Peleliu Wraps Up Humanitarian Cruise*

*/4-Month Mission Spread U.S. Aid To South Pacific/*


/(NAVY TIMES 9 SEP 07)/… Gidget Fuentes
As far as cruise books go, this one likely will be unique: Sunsets over 
the South Pacific. Exotic island locales. And lots of sweaty work and 
smiling faces.

The more than 1,500 sailors, officers and civilian aid workers embarked 
on the amphibious assault ship Peleliu are wrapping up a historic 
four-month humanitarian deployment in September.

They distributed food and medicine, working in concert with three 
nongovernmental aid organizations and foreign military forces. They 
bandaged wounds and did hundreds of surgeries. They rebuilt medical 
clinics, fixed schools and rehabilitated small hospitals. They repaired 
dam-aged roads and cleared flooded rivers of mud and debris.

And, amid the expansive archipelagoes of the South Pacific, aboard 
helicopters, boats or landing crafts, they brought simple but necessary 
supplies such as solar panels, batteries and radios to far-flung villages.

"We honestly felt like rock stars out there with the way the locals 
greeted us," said Lt. Greg Jennings, the officer in charge of the Seabee 
contingent that deployed with the Peleliu.

"We always felt welcomed," Jennings said, speaking Sept. 4 by satellite 
phone from the ship, anchored off a Marshall Is-lands atoll. "The gift 
we were giving, the food we were giving, these guys will not forget that."

The San Diego-based Peleliu left home May 23 for a series of 
humanitarian missions on the heels of last year's deployment of the 
hospital ship Mercy. The ship stopped in Guam and visited the island of 
Peleliu before its crew and embarked teams rolled up their sleeves to 
tackle their missions, most planned earlier and refined as the ship 
reached the region.

Each mission included a variety of medical and dental assistance, 
construction, rehabilitation and community relations.
Capt. Bruce Stewart, commodore and mission leader, noted one mission in 
which the Seabees pressed on despite long hours and tropical conditions 
to complete repairs on a schoolhouse.

The work "went well into the night in very arduous heat conditions," 
Stewart said, speaking by satellite phone. "That epitomized the entire 
operation."

"American sailors remain our simply best asset to use in these 
missions," he said. "Sailors will do anything they can to help someone 
in need."

Indeed, during the deployment, Peleliu's crew dug into their pockets and 
voluntarily collected $1,500 for a Solomon Islands man in need of a new 
roof for his tsunami-damaged home.

The man wasn't just any elderly resident — he was Eroni Kumana, one of 
the local villagers who helped rescue President Kennedy and several of 
his crew Aug. 2, 1943, after then-Lt. Kennedy's torpedo boat, PT 109, 
collided with a Japanese warship, killing two crewmen. Kumana and 
another man took the wounded men by boat 35 miles to safety.

The man is "a living legend," Stewart said. "We just happened to hear 
that he was there and still alive."
The Navy brought Kumana by helicopter to the ship, where he was honored 
Aug. 22 with a cake and a U.S. flag presented by Navy Secretary Donald 
C. Winter during an overnight trip.

Slots to get off the ship and go ashore to help in community relations 
projects, which required about 200 volunteers each, were hot tickets. 
"We had more people signing up than we actually had spaces for," Stewart 
noted.

By all accounts, it was a success. Navy officials wanted to reach out in 
a diplomatic mission to bring U.S. naval power and humanitarian 
assistance to a part of the world ravaged by natural disasters, 
fractured by civil conflict or just beyond the reach of most modern 
conveniences.

"We opened quite a few eyes," said Capt. Scott Flinn, who commanded the 
medical contingent.
The deployment gave many aboard the Peleliu a new perspective, too. 
"Many of us had been to Iraq already," Flinn said. "So this is a very 
completely different kind of mission. This is very rewarding also."

The selection of the Peleliu, which normally deploys with 1,500 Marines 
and two dozen helicopters and Harrier attack jets, brought planners the 
ability to reach far in-land, which the Mercy hadn't been able to do. 
The Peleliu deployed with a pair of MH-53 Sea Dragon transport 
helicopters, which provided longer legs — farther range and extra lift 
capability — to reach distant villages and atolls.

"We wanted to show that we can take a warship into a host nation and do 
host-nation support," said Flinn, the Naval Surface Forces' force 
surgeon and a family medicine and sports medicine physician. "We weren't 
sure if we were going to do so well. It went great."

While many medical teams went ashore to help in clinics and hospitals, 
the missions also provided a steady drumbeat of patients into the 
Peleliu's medical department, which includes a 48-bed ward, 12-bed 
intensive care unit and three operating rooms. Assisting them throughout 
the deployment were civilian medical providers with the U.S. Public 
Health Service and nongovernmental organizations, along with a fleet 
surgical team, a multiservice military augmentation team and foreign 
military medical personnel.

The addition of surgeons, nurses, technicians and others provided needed 
relief at times during busy surgical loads.
How busy? The surgical teams handled 16 to 18 general surgeries daily 
while Peleliu was off the Philippines, Flinn said.

The Peleliu's presence in the region stirred much interest as well as a 
few surprises.
Initially, the Vietnamese government rebuffed the Navy's offer to 
provide surgical services to residents during the Peleliu's 10-day visit 
and humanitarian missions. "After they got a tour of the ship, they were 
rethinking," Stewart said. A week later, he added, two doctors and one 
dentist arrived onboard, strictly as observers.

It wasn't long before Vietnam sent a team of medical providers to the 
ship to fold into Peleliu's medical contingent, and they be-came 
"full-fledged" members.

So, Stewart noted, "it really helps get them engaged."
Among the sailors hauling loads and slinging sweat were the Peleliu's 
contingent of Seabees, members of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 7 
from Gulfport, Miss., and Amphibious Construction Battalion 1 from 
Coronado, Calif.

`They were working the entire time," Jennings said. He recalled 
villagers who would bring the Seabees food and juicy, freshly-chopped 
coconuts while they worked.

The Seabees linked up with local suppliers for most of the projects. 
Villagers often jumped through hoops to help.
Once, during a project in an extremely remote island in the Philippines, 
"the locals had to craft rafts and floated the supplies tous," Jennings 
recalled. "We were able to complete the mission." The humanitarian 
projects gave younger sailors a steady line of work. "This was a good 
chance for the more junior personnel to take charge of some projects and 
lead," Jennings said.