Below is a Straits Times article about the disaster relief
operation back in early 2005.
Does anybody know whether or not any of those RSN LSTs participated
in the operation tried to use its bow ramp to land supplies?
Jan 11, 2005
Bad weather forces SAF to airlift
supplies
Rough seas prevent the usual beach landings for relief forces
THE weather off Meulaboh took a bad turn yesterday, forcing
Singapore Armed Forces troops conducting relief operations there to
switch to Plan B - air travel.
Instead of heading to
shore on Fast Landing Craft, SAF combat engineers and medical
personnel from the Humanitarian Assistance Support Group were flown
to shore on a steady stream of Super Puma helicopters.
The sudden change in weather conditions came after several days of
relatively calm seas.
Yesterday, rough waters
prevented craft being launched from the two navy ships off Meulaboh
- the RSS Endurance and the RSS Persistence.
Captain Toh Keng Hoe, 27, of 195 Squadron, said: 'The weather was
pretty bad. We experienced very bad sea conditions.
'The swell was very high, so there were concerns with launching and
getting the landing craft off the well dock, which would be a huge
safety issue and would compromise the safety of the landing craft
and crew going to the beach.'
The weather was so bad that even the 141m-long Endurance, a landing
ship tank, was rocking heavily.
There was an upside to the poor conditions, however. It gave those
who stayed aboard the warships time off from their hectic schedules
to check equipment or review operations of the past week.
Navy personnel from the RSN's 195 Squadron, who operate the landing
craft, have had a busy time since the warships began unloading
personnel, vehicles and relief supplies.
Staff Sergeant Max Yeo, 28, a Fast Craft Utility coxswain, for
example, is up at 5am each day to prepare his craft. By the time he
is done, it is close to 9pm, after which he still has to debrief
his men.
On a typical workday, SSG Yeo, who has been with the navy for 10
years, can make as many as 10 trips to shore.
He said: 'The weather has not really been helpful to me. Out at
sea, there's the sun and the rain, and the waves just keep
coming.'
Capt Toh, the outfit's commander, agrees: 'Sea conditions have been
pretty bad. The swells are pretty high. The beach is also giving us
a lot of problems.
'There's a lot of debris
and the coastal conditions are different from what was stated on
the charts.
'We are not sure where we
are heading. We're really going into the unknown.'
Despite all this, craft operated by the likes of SSG Yeo have
helped deliver tonnes of supplies that he and the crew know will
help those whose lives have been devastated by the tsunami.
Cheers,
Sunho
