Troops prepare 2 aid flights to Myanmar today

[unhappycamper]

Troops prepare 2 aid flights to Myanmar today
Staff and wire reports
Posted : Tuesday May 13, 2008 8:05:34 EDT

Myanmar has agreed to allow more U.S. military flights carrying humanitarian aid into the cyclone-devastated country, opening the door to what could be a massive relief operation, officials said Tuesday.

A second aid flight left Utapao Air Base in Thailand on Tuesday, and another was set to leave later in the day, said Marine Lt. Col. Douglas Powell.

Powell said the first flight Tuesday carried 19,900 pounds of blankets, water and mosquito nets. The second was scheduled to take in a 24,750-pound load. The two flights come after Myanmar allowed an Air Force quick-response task force to deliver its first C-130 cargo jet full of supplies from Utapao, a bomber base for the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War.

About 50 airmen from the 36th Contingency Response Group, deployed out of Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base, have set up the relief operation.

The 36th response group, created to speedily deploy to Pacific-region disasters such as the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami, has also placed other aircraft and personnel on standby: a C-130 and its crew from Yokota Air Base in Japan and a C-17 Globemaster III from Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_myanmar_051208/