5 CHAPTER ONE TO THE RESCUE The hull of the USS Bataan sliced through the waters off the island country of Haiti The Bataan is an amphibious assault ship built for combat But on this day the ship had a different mission Instead of delivering missiles or transporting troops it was bringing relief supplies In January 2010 Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake The Bataan was part of a massive US Sailors from the USS Bataan unload food and water from a landing craft utility vehicle in Haiti to aid in earthquake relief in 2010
Tr o o p s u n l o a d h e a v y e q u i p m e n t f r o m a l a n d i n g c r a f t u n i t on the shore of Haiti to help assist with disaster relief in 2010 military mission that answered the call to help The ship delivered more than 1,000 pallets of food bedding medicine and other supplies to Haiti The Bataan used its utility boats helicopters and special landing craft to move the supplies from the ship to the shore A year later another navy ship was conducting a different kind of mission in the Indian Ocean The 6
USS Constitution People can still visit one of America’s oldest navy ships The USS Constitution is a wooden frigate sailing ship with three masts It was built in Boston in 1794 The Constitution fought in the War of 1812 It has been restored and can still be sailed It is on display at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston Massachusetts Visitors can tour the ship It is the world’s oldest commissioned sailing ship that is still afloat 7 USS Carl Vinson is a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier It was responsible for transporting the body of terrorist Osama bin Laden after he was killed by US troops in Pakistan Bin Laden’s body was taken aboard the ship and then buried at sea The US government did not want him to be buried on land They feared his grave might become a shrine for supporters of terrorism In August 2014 the MV Cape Ray completed an important mission It had to neutralize 660 short tons 600 metric tons of chemical weapons removed from Syria The specially equipped ship mixed water and other chemicals to deactivate the dangerous weapons It was the first time that a
