Admiral Timothy Keating (Usn) Holds a Defense Department News Briefing

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Admiral Timothy Keating (Usn) Holds a Defense Department News Briefing

ADMIRAL KEATING HOLDS A DEFENSE DEPARTMENT NEWS BRIEFING

MAY 28, 2008

SPEAKER: ADMIRAL TIMOTHY KEATING (USN), COMMANDER, U.S. PACIFIC COMMAND

[*] KEATING: Good morning, one and all. For those who aren't familiar, Tim Keating, commander of the United States Pacific Command here in Washington for a little while, and will leave this evening to join the secretary and the chairman in Singapore for Shangri-La Dialogue and then proceed to Korea for the change of command there.

A couple of topics in which you might be interested, Burma to start, and then I'll talk China for just a second, and a couple other relief operations we have underway, and I'll be happy to take your questions.

As you well know, the Typhoon Nargis came ashore in Burma on the 2nd of May. We had forces in Thailand for Exercise Cobra Gold already. We were able to stand up a task force consequently very quickly, headed by Lieutenant General John Goodman, commander of the Marine Corps forces in the Pacific. He remains in Thailand overseeing our operations.

I flew with Henrietta Fore, the director of USAID, and Ambassador Scott Marciel in an Air Force C-130 from Utapau, Thailand, into Rangoon on the 11th of May. It was coincidentally the first relief flight supplied by the United States. We took 30,000 pounds of water, mosquito netting, and plastic sheeting used for shelter in that C-130.

We disembarked the C-130 after a couple-hour flight from Thailand and were met by a delegation of Burmese military and civilian officials with a three-star leading the Burmese delegation. His English was quite good.

So the standard ...

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