NATORI, Japan — Last month, when a team of United States Air Force Special Operations forces reached the damaged Sendai Airport, just a mile from the coast, it found a devastated landscape of uprooted buildings, smashed vehicles and the bodies of the dead....NYTimes Slideshow here.
Over the next four weeks, they worked to restore Sendai Airport, where he huge tsunami had flooded the runway and threatened to engulf the sleek glass terminal....On Wednesday, the airport in Sendai, one of northern Japan’s largest cities, nearly 200 miles northeast of Tokyo, reopened to commercial flights for the first time since the earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11. But when the airport resumed civilian operations, the two dozen members of the Air Force unit, the 353rd Special Operations Group, were not on hand to celebrate. Nor were most ofthe 260 Marines and soldiers who also joined the cleanup.
They had already packed up and gone.
more on the story at Stars&Stripes, including this photo:
Thank you NYTimes for noticing...the US Military has helped in several Philippine disasters, but kept a low profile so that most of the publicity could go to the larger local groups that were here.
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