This is a Japanese television report about the USS Ronald Reagan’s role in disaster response:
A news story about the Ronald Reagan’s disaster relief efforts in Japan:
ON BOARD THE USS RONALD REAGAN — When U.S. Navy helicopters swept down on the school in a ruined Japanese village, survivors first looked hesitantly from the windows. Then they rushed out, helping unload food, water and clothes. They clasped hands with the Americans. Some embraced them.
“They are like gods descending from the sky,” said a tearful Junko Fujiwara, 37, a secretary at the elementary-school-turned-shelter in the northern coastal town of Kesennuma. “It’s cold and dark here, so we need everything: food, water, electricity, gasoline, candles.”
…
Much of what the Americans have handed out are goods taken from their own ships: extra food and blankets, and even the sailors’ own clothes.
There were stuffed toys for children, too.
To alleviate food shortages in the shelters, the Ronald Reagan sent 77,000 frozen hot dogs to a Japanese warship, which boiled them and gave them out.
–U.S. brings relief, goodwill to Japan (Seattle Times)
I wonder how much more could be “handed out” if the Ronald Reagan was supplied for a disaster instead of war.