USS Essex, Okinawa Marines wrap up trip to Cambodia

[unhappycamper]

Lt. Todd E. Gregory, a surgeon with the Okinawa-based 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, and Lt. Lance R. Henninger, an air combat element flight surgeon, examine a patient during a medical and dental aid project recently in Kampong Cham, Cambodia. The sailors and the Okinawa-based 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit spent Nov. 26-29 providing the health care aid.


USS Essex, Okinawa Marines wrap up trip to Cambodia
By Travis J. Tritten, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, December 7, 2007

A crowd of Cambodian villagers crouched in the grass watching and waiting intently for treatment.

Inside the temporary clinic in Kampong Cham, a U.S. Navy dentist peered into a local woman’s mouth as he probed and swabbed away the blood with cotton balls.

It wasn’t the type of bloodshed that makes news headlines around the world, but the U.S. military hopes some tooth extractions will make an impression on Cambodian residents.

During a peace mission that wrapped up Sunday, the Sasebo, Japan-based USS Essex — along with a unit of Okinawa Marines — spent three days providing medical and dental care to residents of the Kampong Cham region in the Southeast Asian country, according to information released by the U.S. Navy.

The Navy said it hopes the visit will bolster long-standing ties between the two countries and help secure the Pacific region.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50781



uhc comment: It's nice to see some humanitarian efforts made in Cambodia. After all, we bombed the shit out of them in 69/70. That bombing campaign enabled the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot to take power in 1975.