South Korean peacekeeping troops bound for Haiti cheer during a ceremony in Incheon on Wednesday. South Korea will be sending a total of 240 troops to Haiti by the end of this month as the sixth United Nations peacekeeping unit working on rebuilding the quake-ravaged nation
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The U.S. military is scaling back its primary mission of medical and humanitarian assistance in this earthquake-ravaged nation while ramping up reconstruction and resettlement, according to the commander of Joint Task Force Haiti.
A massive food distribution push is set to end later this week. And significant — and surprising — improvement in the medical situation on the ground has lessened the need for U.S. medical personnel.
As a result, the military is sending some assets home and shifting the focus of the remaining forces to engineering projects and rubble removal, he said.
At the peak of the mission, in the wake of the Jan. 12 earthquake, there were 20,000 U.S. forces on the ground and on ships offshore. Now, 13,000 troops remain, of which 7,000 are on the ground, military officials said.
“We see the need for military assistance dwindling,” Lt. Gen. Ken Keen told a Pentagon news briefing Wednesday via satellite from Haiti.
Reconstruction and resettlement are “two significant challenges for the government and the international community,” he said.
Keen wouldn’t elaborate on how long he sees U.S. forces remaining in Haiti.
“It’s too early to tell which units may not be needed on the ground as we go forward,” he said.
Keen said the capacities of the port, the airport and the Haitian government still need to mature.
Just two weeks ago, doctors aboard the USNS Comfort said patients were stuck aboard the hospital ship with no place to go for recovery and further treatment in Haiti.
The Haitian facilities were either unable to handle the complicated cases or overwhelmed with patients already.
Now it appears that the medical capabilities in Haiti have turned around so thoroughly that a 250-bed facility the military rushed to build in Port-au-Prince has gone unused save for a handful of patients. Keen said he had thought there would be a significant need for an interim after-care facility, possibly requiring as many as 5,000 beds, but the need never materialized.
The Comfort now has only about 70 patients onboard, down from about 500 at its peak.
“Things are stabilizing and moving towards reconstruction,” said Lynn Lawry, a doctor who worked in Haiti with International Medical Corps, which has a large presence there. Lawry also consults for the Defense Department on issues of working with NGOs.
The U.S. military is drawing down its surgical capabilities in Haiti, said Col. Gregory Kane, task force operations officer.
An Air Force hospital established after the earthquake should be gone in the next week or so, and surgical teams aboard the USS Bataan are headed home, he said.
With the recovery of Haitian hospitals and the expansion and opening of nongovernmental facilities, there are now 91 functioning hospitals, 53 of which have surgical capabilities, Lawry said. That is more than double what the area had before the earthquake.
“I don’t think anybody anticipated that things would rebound so quickly,” said Capt. Andrew Johnson, the Comfort’s director of medical operations.
Meanwhile, as the World Food Program’s distribution “surge” is slated to end on Saturday, the food distribution points secured by Marines and U.S. soldiers will no longer be used to hand out aid, according to Col. Gareth Brandl, commander of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.
Marines will remain ashore for the time being to make sure that Haitians and nongovernmental agencies can handle food distribution, Brandl said.
Afterward, most Marines will return to their ships off Haiti’s coast to stand by if needed, he said. A small number of Marines will remain behind to coordinate relief efforts.
The plan is for local Haitian leaders and aid agencies to drop off food at smaller locations, such as orphanages and camps for displaced Haitians, said Lt. Col. Robert Fulford, battalion commander for 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment.
When asked if things might get chaotic without Marines to provide security, Fulford said the United Nations will not distribute food unless the sites are well organized.
Ultimately, it will be up to Haitian leaders to maintain order, he said.
Stars and Stripes reporter Megan McCloskey reported from Washington
Stars and Stripes
