Pacific Command Units Deliver Help to Burma

In the wake of a cyclone that killed many thousands of people in Burma more than a week earlier, U.S. troops finally got the word that government officials in the Asian nation finally ended their resistance to international help and would allow them to deliver badly needed relief supplies. The first U.S. plane, a C-130 transport, arrived in the Burmese capital of Rangoon on May 12 bearing water, mosquito nets and blankets. Future flights would carry more of the same cargo, as well as food, to Burma’s Irrawaddy River delta, which bore the brunt of the cyclone’s fury. The Navy’s Essex Expeditionary Strike Group planned to arrive in waters off Burma’s coast by the end of the week to take part in a scheduled training exercise. If diplomatic efforts succeed, the Essex ESG will try to offer more help. Early estimates peg the death toll there at 32,000, with another 30,000 missing and as many as 2 million refugees.