- ABOARD THE PAPALOAPAN - The
Marines have landed in Biloxi. The Mexican Marines.
-
- And Dutch Marines, too.
-
- Marines from Mexico, the Netherlands and the United States
are allies in an international Hurricane Katrina cleanup effort based on
ships about 20 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Four Canadian ships
are on the way.
-
- "Our president called George Bush, and three days
later we came here," said Oscar Martinez Pretelin, an officer aboard
the Papaloapan, a 440-foot-long, troop-landing ship. "We are honored
to help the United States."
-
- About 75 Mexican Marines landed Thursday on the beach
just east of the Beau Rivage casino to begin cleaning up Biloxi, Miss.,
especially around schools and churches.
-
- One of the Marines, Mario T. Rodriguez, said he left
a small city in the far south of Mexico to volunteer for hurricane relief
duty. He has a 3-month-old daughter with his wife at home.
-
- "The U.S. is so rich, but even a rich country can
need help," he said.
-
- The Mexican Marines will be aided by Spanish-speaking
crew members of the USS Bataan as they work in the devastated areas of
Biloxi and Gulfport.
-
- For the first time in the history of the Mexican military,
women have been assigned a mission, said Lt. Leonardo Tun Humbert of the
Papaloapan: Three female physicians and two nurses from the Mexican navy
are aboard the ship waiting to be assigned to hurricane relief work.
-
- "We are trained to help and we will help,"
said Sgt. Carmen Rodriguez Cruz, 26, a nurse from Veracruz.
-
- A Dutch ship, the Van Amstel, a frigate that was pulled
off a drug patrol near Aruba after Katrina struck on Aug. 29, is here,
as well.
-
- Lt. Cmdr. Henk Suurveld, the ship's second in command,
said his men will patrol to make sure pleasure craft don't interfere with
military operations. A contingent of about 70 Dutch Marines also landed
on the beach in Biloxi on Thursday to clean up neighborhoods.
-
- "The devastation is terrible. It is horrible,"
Suurveld said. "For us, job satisfaction is helping out in a situation
like this."
-
- The Mexican Marines got a bit of a culture shock when
they met Capt. Nora Tyson, the commander of the Bataan. The 844-foot ship
is equipped with six helicopters that began rescue operations in New Orleans
the day after Katrina struck, then was sent to Biloxi on Thursday.
-
- "We were surprised to find a woman commanding a
ship," said Pretelin, the Mexican navy fleet officer. "We found
her very professional, very well mannered."
-
- "It's the same hard job for a woman as it is for
a man," said Tyson, with a smile.
-
- (Pawlaczyk reports for the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat.)
|
