PHUKET, Thailand (16 Jan 2005) -- The U.S. Navy commando jumped out of his jet-powered boat into knee-high water to search floating debris - rubber sandals, a television set, a battered refrigerator - for bodies of tsunami victims along the craggy shoreline. "This is the kind of place nobody's looked at," said the SEAL. "That's more debris than we've seen anywhere. ... Let's try to get a little closer." Wading into a shallow inlet on the tourist island of Phi Phi, he reached into the water and plucked out a purse filled with sand. But he found no bodies. It was the sixth day of searching for the SEAL, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Shannon, to protect the security of his covert unit. Some 3,600 people are still listed as missing in Thailand from the Dec. 26 tsunami, which killed 5,300 people in the country, about half of them foreigners. Across the region, the tsunami killed nearly 160,000 people. Shannon and three other SEALs have led teams of Thais and nearly a dozen U.S. sailors on two 32-foot river boats, searching beaches, islands and mangrove swamps. The SEALs, who normally specialize in secret assault missions, stop to inspect crumbling island resorts and fields of waterborne debris and to talk to villagers who may need help. "The big thing is if they're missing people," said Shannon. "By now, pretty much everybody's got food and water." SEAL is an acronym for SEa, Air, and Land and highlights the arenas that the force can operate in. Its missions can include destroying enemy ships in a fortified harbor or softening up beach defenses. SEALs are also proficient in reconnaissance and small-unit tactics. | | In Thailand, hundreds of bodies were pulled from the ocean in the days after the tsunami. The SEAL teams have so far marked three areas where they suspect more corpses may have become entangled in vegetation or buried in silt. Thai authorities will come back to check the areas. "We dug and dug, but couldn't get our hands on them," Shannon said. "But they were there." |
