Jim wrote:
Wondering if any of these are enroute to New Orleans? Seems they
would be ideal for getting survivors our of difficult areas.

USS Bataan is in the Gulf already, with a small number of helicopters (looks
like just the two SAR MH-60s or HH-60s plus some MH-53s, no Marine helos).
Haven't seen any indication that she has landing craft embarked. She was
doing an AMCM exercise (PANAMAX 2005) that ended a week or two ago, followed
by some local ops in the Carribean (all per the ship's website).

The Iwo Jima ready group is en route now as well, with elements of Assault
Craft Unit Two embarked. But ACU-2 is LCUs, not LCACs. So it looks like
maybe no LCACs at the moment. Given the difficulty of carrying passengers
on LCACs, the Marine boat company's Rigid Raiders or RIBs might be more
useful anyway, assuming they are present. Reports indicate that the ships
loaded very fast, with only partial cargo loads, so they may not have the
Marines and their equipment aboard.

--
Tom Schoene Replace "invalid" with "net" to e-mail
"Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right, when
wrong to be put right." - Senator Carl Schurz, 1872