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GULF COAST CRISIS: HELP FROM MEXICO

Neighborly hand comes to help out
Mexico puts ashore 75 marines, sailors to restore Biloxi area

By Michael Martinez
Tribune national correspondent

September 10, 2005

BILOXI, Miss. -- In a rare moment of military history between the United States and its southern neighbor, 75 Mexican marines and sailors landed Friday on an American beach next to tattered resort hotels. It was a curious turnabout: Mexico coming to Uncle Sam's rescue.

Hurricane Katrina is making all kinds of history, and now its legacy of destruction has been so overwhelming that the U.S. armed forces are relying on assistance from the frequently estranged neighbor of Mexico, more recently a source of conflict over matters such as illegal immigration rather than a supplier of aid.

That tension was evident just days before the Mexican military specialists in natural disasters cleaned up the debris-filled schools and campuses Friday in D'Iberville, next to Biloxi.

U.S. officials recently agreed to a Mexican request not to prosecute Mexican illegal immigrants who seek U.S. help from the hurricane damage.

The animus was hardly present Friday after the Mexican forces expressed accomplishment and pride at having worked a full steamy day on cleanup.

Yes, several marines acknowledged, the back of their minds held the thought of the longstanding antagonism between the U.S. and Mexican militaries, extending to the Mexican War of 1848, when the land that is now home to several Southwestern states was lost by the Mexican republic.

It was the honor of helping the Americans that was the dominant emotion in their humanitarian mission, they said. The Mexican military assistance to the United States--the army convoys to Texas and naval units to Mississippi--is unprecedented, Mexican officials say.

More than 300 Mexican marines and sailors were aboard the warship Papaloapan, anchored 8 miles off Biloxi, near the USS Bataan and a Dutch navy frigate, HMNLS Van Amstel.

With 190 sailors aboard, the Van Amstel sent 60 crew members ashore to a makeshift beach post called Camp Restore to join the Mexicans in the cleanup, a Dutch navy spokesman said.

"For us, it's very significant because some of these parts [of the United States] used to be part of our country. There's been a lot of hardship," said marine Elias Castellanos Jackson, 21, of Tuxpan in the Mexican state of Veracruz. "But when we talked with the American Marines, there's been a lot of camaraderie. And some of them even spoke a little Spanish, and it gave me a chance to practice my English.

"There were no hard feelings. It was a good experience overall," Castellanos said near a stand of rakes, pickaxes, hatchets and gloves under a live oak tree on the battered coast.

"It was with a lot of pride that we came here," added 3rd Sgt. Jose Arnold Castellanos, 31, a 13-year marine from Tampico, Mexico.

"It's unforgettable. It's a great experience for us," said Lt. Ruben Oyarvide, 36, also from Tampico and commander of the 75 marines in a natural disaster relief group called Plan Marino.

"It's noble what we have in this action," he said.

Accompanying the Mexican marines and sailors was diplomat Juan Salgado, 49, of Mexico City, who emphasized the humanitarian dimensions of the cooperative effort rather than the rancor of historical bygones.

"I don't think so. Maybe the top officials think about it, but not these guys. They just want to help," said Salgado, a career diplomat in the Foreign Ministry.

The Mexican servicemen said they picked up pieces of fallen roofs, retrieved scattered schoolbooks and removed fallen tree limbs from schoolyards.

Their work left schools looking like new again, and they will continue helping the Americans as long as needed, they said. For lunch, they were served the classic American meal of hot dogs.

"We have Mexican food to eat on the ship," Salgado said.

The Mexican and Dutch sailors were wonderstruck upon boarding the U.S. warship Bataan, used in amphibious assaults, before being tendered to Biloxi beach, U.S. sailors said.

"It's good to see them, and they like to see us. We help other countries," said 1st Class Petty Officer Kelsey Harris, 30, of San Antonio, an engineer on one of the two hovercrafts. "They seem to be in awe of us when they look at the ship--the weight room, the ship store."

Meanwhile, the Mexican marines said they even tried to strike up conversations with the Dutch sailors.

The Dutch servicemen had been at Curacao in the West Indies assisting the U.S. military in searching for drug runners when they got orders to sail to Biloxi, commanders said.

Usually, Dutch sailors are allowed three beers a day while at sea, but commanders banned alcohol usage during the relief mission on the U.S. Gulf Coast, sailors said.

"We never know what we might see. You might see some dead bodies. That's why we can't drink. We [also] have some young sailors," said Chief Petty Officer Peter Bronkhorst, 43, of Bunschoten Spakenburg, paymaster and chief of administration.

He described the destruction as extraordinary.

"I've seen a lot of the world, but nothing like this--Cambodia, Iraq, Albania, Ethiopia, Eritrea. This is different," Bronkhorst said.