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American operations in Haiti are being directed from the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, off the coast of Haiti. The BBC’s Steve Kingstone gets a first-hand look at the Navy ship that’s become, among other things, a floating hospital.

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MARCO WERMAN: There are some twelve thousand U.S. troops taking part in relief operations in and around Haiti.  Those operations are being directed from a command center aboard the U.S.S. Carl Vinson.  The aircraft carrier is currently just off the coast of Haiti.  The BBC’s Steve Kingston went aboard and sent this report.

STEVE KINGSTON: Well, we’re not standing on the deck of the U.S.S. Carl Vinson. This vast water-borne runway, one of the biggest aircraft carriers in the world. They’re loading up bottles of water, ready meals, medical packs, which are then being flown onto Port au Prince.  This really has become a second airport.

SCOTT TOMPKINS: We’ve been doing the heavy lifts so I’m moving large quantities of water and food.  We’re doing runs back and forth between Guantanamo, Cuba bringing Naval supplies and also from the ship taking those into Port au Prince either to the airfield or directly into the landing zones in the city.

KINGSTON: Lieutenant Scott Tompkins is one of the U.S. Navy pilots since Friday who have flow well over 600 missions into Haiti.

TOMPKINS: At first, we struggled with getting clear landing zones, and there were a lot of people coming right to the helicopters.  By this point, we’ve got more security forces just to keep people back for their own safety. They just come in and they’re trying to get their hands on the food and water.

KINGSTON: And as the pilot, what do you do in that situation?

TOMPKINS: Well, we prefer to set a zone that secured with some police or troops obviously. When that can’t happen, we rely on our crewmen in the back a great deal.  With our helicopter, the rotor wash is so great as we land, if we keep some power on the rotor head the down force actually keeps the people away.  And that’s worked pretty well for us.

KINGSTON: Well, there’s suddenly a lot of activity on this deck. In front of me now a team of medics is lined up waiting for an incoming helicopter, and on board are people who need urgent medical treatment.  An elderly man is hastily stretchered to the ship’s hospital.  Beside him is a Haitian woman whose foot had to be amputated here it was so badly crushed and infected.  Commander Alfred Shwayhat is the Vinson’s Senior Medical Officer.

AFRED SHWAYHAT: We have a 50-bed small mini-hospital here.  We have full surgical capabilities, general surgical capabilities. We have Haitians on board as well as American citizens on board.  Our hearts go out to them and we’re just very happy here to help out as much as we can.

KINGSTON: With this massive build up of hardware and troops, Haiti increasingly feels like a third front for the U.S. military, a world away from the Iraq and Afghanistan, but with new and formidable challenges.

WERMAN: That was the BBC’s Steven Kingston reporting from the flight deck of the U.S.S. Carl Vinson just off the Coast of Haiti.

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