KARIM RAJIA, Indonesia - U.S. helicopters rescued dozens of desperate and weak tsunami survivors, including a young girl clutching a stuffed Snoopy dog, as the American military relief operation reached out to remote areas of Indonesia with cartons of food and water on Monday.
Although the United States was not among the first at the scene after last week's natural disaster thousands of miles from American shores, it is now spearheading the international relief effort and delivering more supplies than any other nation. A U.S. warship strike group carrying thousands more Marines was headed in to help.
"Look at that, look at that! It's so big!" shouted a 6-year-old girl, Khairunisa, as a U.S. Hercules cargo plane roared over Banda Aceh, the capital of Sumatra island's devastated Aceh province and the base of the aid operation in Indonesia.
The Americans flew missions from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln along a 120-mile stretch of Sumatra's ravaged coastline, further revealing the extent of the destruction. The tsunami, triggered by the world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years, has killed more than 139,000 people in Asia and Africa; considerably more than half of the deaths were on Sumatra.
Many of the 60 victims picked up in more than two dozen missions Monday - including children, elderly and two pregnant women - were too weak from eight days with little food or water to speak or move. Doctors said they suffered from pneumonia, broken bones, infected wounds and tetanus. Many appeared deeply traumatized. At least 25 were in critical condition.
The American pilots ferried the survivors to a medical field station in Banda Aceh. The ones not rushed on stretchers were placed on a blue plastic sheet, among them a young girl clutching a stuffed Snoopy dog. Some cried, and aid workers stroked their arms and backs to comfort them. They were given chocolate wafers, water, sweaters and T-shirts.
In the shattered village of Meulaboh, an injured man stretched out on the ground, hooked to an intravenous drip that hung from a tree branch outside an overcrowded hospital emergency room. In Lam Jamek, another ruined village, survivors used an elephant to pull a vehicle to the provincial capital.
The U.S. pilots said the damage was stunning. The five-vessel U.S. carrier group and much of the crew, which moved into position on Saturday, served in the Persian Gulf during the Iraq conflict.
"In my 17 years of service, I have never seen such devastation, and I hope that I'll never see such again in my life," said senior chief Jesse Cash, of Albuquerque, N.M., who has served in Somalia and Liberia.
The devastation illustrated the awesome power of the waves.
At Karim Rajiatwo, about seven miles south of Banda Aceh, huge tanks at an oil storage facility had been knocked off their concrete bases and sat lopsided on the sand, while thousands of smaller oil drums lay scattered about. It was unclear if any were leaking.