US ends Pakistan quake relief mission

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Hoping to have garnered goodwill
among a nation known for its anti-American sentiments, U.S.
soldiers left quake-stricken Pakistan on Thursday to end the
U.S. military’s biggest relief mission since the Berlin
Airlift.

“You have written history in a very major way,” U.S.
ambassador Ryan C. Crocker told a final contingent of 200
soldiers, comparing their mission to one launched in 1948 to
overcome a Soviet blockade of West Berlin.

“You have also written a new chapter in how nations work
together,” the ambassador said during a farewell ceremony at an
airbase near Islamabad.

Helped by unseasonably mild weather, the massive relief
effort helped avert a feared second wave of death over the
winter months in the Himalayan foothills of northern Pakistan
and Kashmir, and the U.S. troops’ departure was timed for the
onset of spring.

At the height of the six-month mission there were 1,200
U.S. servicemen and women — mostly medics, engineers and
logistical support staff — involved in an international effort
to help about three million people made destitute by the quake.

The huge Chinook helicopters flown in within 48 hours of
the October 8 earthquake that killed more than 73,000
Pakistanis, became known as “Angels of Mercy.”

U.S. officials said the Chinooks would make some final
sorties on Friday for the U.N. World Food Program before
relocating to neighboring Afghanistan.

At the start of the mission, 24 U.S. military helicopters,
including 17 Chinooks, supported the Pakistani-led relief
efforts but “as the relief matured, 12 Chinooks and four
Australian Blackhawk helicopters provided continuous relief
airlift support,” a U.S. statement said.

Flying more than 5,000 sorties, they delivered more than
15,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid and evacuated more than 3,000
injured in over 200 days.

“This was a Herculean effort, one the world will never
forget,” Rear Admiral Michael LeFever, commander of the U.S.
Disaster Assistance Center in Pakistan said, commending the air
and ground crews’ work.

Crocker said the United States would remain engaged in
Pakistan’s post-quake relief and reconstruction effort for
which it has promised to provide $200 million over the next few
years besides $100 million committed by the U.S. private
sector.

The withdrawal of the U.S troops began last month, and a
near 1,000-strong NATO contingent packed up on February 1 after
the Pakistani government said it would not be required to
extend its 90-day mission.