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‘Saipan is key to military assistance in Pacific region’
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Posted on May 22 2006
Being centrally located, Saipan plays very important role for the U.S. military’s quick response to any humanitarian needs in the Pacific region, according to an officer of one of the U.S. Navy’s maritime prepositioned ships.
Chris Davis, chief officer for one of the MPS, cited that Saipan’s location is great in that they can immediately proceed to the Philippines, Indonesia, Straits of Malacca, and Thailand if it is needed.
Davis underscored the need to have a large presence of MPS on Saipan because it is centrally located for the areas that they operate on.
“ It’s really easy to get to. And the people are very friendly. We actually enjoy being here,” he told Saipan Tribune during Sunday’s wreath-laying ceremony at the anchorage area aboard a crew ship as part of the National Maritime Day celebration.
“What it [MPS] does is it will give us a chance to react much quicker if we’re forward deployed than if we weren’t. To bring everything out from the United States would take a lot longer. This way, we can react quicker as a whole,” he said.
Davis cited that they played heavily in the tsunami relief effort.
“We’d have been delayed quite a bit if we’re not already out here to start with. That’s what I mean—able to react quickly,” he said.
Davis added that terrorism is another issue they are concerned about. “We have to be able to react quickly to that,” he said.
USNS Jack Lummus, one of the MPS where Davis is stationed, conducted relief and evacuation operation from Luzon following the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo and typhoon that followed that.
In 1992, Jack Lummus also played important role during Typhoon Omar in Guam by providing supplies such as vehicles, steam plants, water storage tanks, and generator’s equipment.
For the first time, the CNMI joined Sunday the rest of the nation in honoring the historic and ongoing contributions of America’s Merchant Marines.
