USS Essex Visits Cambodia

The United States Navy reports that the USS Essex (LHD 2) is paying a visit to Cambodia, and is carrying the 31^st Marine Expeditionary Unit.

This means that the Essex will not be visiting Bangladesh in order to help with relief efforts there. Another ship, the USS Tarawa, was closer to the disaster area and so it was ordered there instead of the USS Essex.

The Essex will participate in a number of activities while in Cambodia, including helping to set up dental facilities, medical facilities, and other public health activities. The Essex is stationed in Japan and is part of the only forward deployed U.S. Expeditionary Strike Group.

This is the first time that an amphibious assault ship from the United States will visit the Kingdom of Cambodia. The first U.S. ship to visit Cambodia in over 30 years was the USS Gary.

Visits like this are part of the United States Navy's effort to make friends around the world. This is not just public relations, but an important strategy in an era when international terrorism threatens the sea lanes, diplomatic facilities, and civilians across the globe. It is only by maintaining friendly relations with other governments and cooperating with them and their military in the fight that the United States can prevail. And a very big part of such a strategy is to maintain consistently, over a long period of time, friendly relations with the people of other countries, and the medical operations of the Essex in Cambodia is part of this strategy.

The ship will assist in local community development projects, it will distribute supplies, and it will donate items to local clinics.

Essex is part of the Seventh Fleet, stationed in Japan.

Naturally, the Marines will play a large role in this visit. The Essex is designed to carry and deploy Marine units all over the world. To the untrained eye it looks like a typical aircraft carrier from the World War II era, but it carries helicopters rather than airplanes, and is designed to make vertical insertions into enemy territory anywhere that it is deployed.

While the Marines are one of the world's toughest fighting forces, they must be used in humanitarian roles as part of the very complex counter insurgency and counter terrorism strategy of the U.S. military.

That strategy might be described as preventive medicine. The typical human who exercises and eats well will tend to maintain better health than the human who over eats and sits on the couch; the nation that uses its armed forces to create goodwill and to help other populations will maintain its host country's health by preventing terrorism from taking root in populations across the globe. It will not have to perform surgery, or combat operations, to fix the problem.

Essex Visits Cambodia, USN