Thousands are still missing in Japan and the search efforts are challenging: in addition to the rubble left by the earthquake, large areas of land are still flooded, and more than 200,000 people have been evacuated from areas to protect citizens from radiation poisoning. Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan has said this is the country’s greatest crisis since World War II. The U.S. Navy is flying missions to assess the debris field at sea and drop humanitarian aid. 150 of America’s top search-and-rescue specialists from Virginia and California arrived Monday morning to travel to the coastal village of Ofunato in Iwate prefecture. Navy Chief Petty Officer Palmer Pinckney is on the U.S. 7th Fleet USS Blue Ridge, which is currently in the South China Sea, south of Japan headed toward the Eastern Coast of Japan. Petty Officer Pinckney details the Navy’s relief effort.
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