The Pentagon is spending about $6 million a day to operate the fleet of ships, aircraft and other military resources that have joined the tsunami relief effort in south Asia, a spokesman said Thursday.

Army Lt. Col. Gary Keck, a Pentagon public affairs officer, said the $6 million per day covers a U.S. contingent of about 13,000 military personnel, of which about 12,000 are aboard 17 Navy ships in the region hit by the Dec. 26 earthquake and resulting tsunami.

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19), based in San Diego, set sail Jan. 5 for the Indian Ocean area as part of relief efforts following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that recently struck the region.

The Navy has deployed Mercy in an imaginative way, utilizing a creative approach to provide the type and level of care that will be needed to aid the tsunami victims. There is presently an opportunity to configure Mercy with a humanitarian assistance crew - which might be staffed significantly by nongovernmental organizations and people with significant medical capability who can provide relief in other forms.

It will take the 894-foot hospital ship about 30 days to reach the Indian Ocean region. The ship's 1,000-bed hospital facility will be initially staffed to support 250 patient beds. The number of patient care beds can be expanded up to 1,000 with additional medical staff, if necessary. Equipment and supplies will be available to treat a wide variety of patients from young children to the elderly.

Mercy has 12 operating rooms, but it is likely the focus of care for this mission will be on patients suffering from illness or infections.

About 275 medical and medical support personnel will sail with Mercy to ready the ship for the humanitarian mission. The remaining hospital staff will join the ship later this month. The ship is operated by 64 Navy civilian mariners.

By Journalist 3rd Class Ryan Valverde, USS Bonhomme Richard Public Affairs

ABOARD USS BONHOMME RICHARD, At sea (NNS) -- USS Bonhomme Richard's (BHR) (LHD 6) Repair Division began manufacturing more than 20 fresh water distribution manifolds Jan. 2 to help dispense fresh water to tsunami victims in South Asia. The manifolds will be used in conjunction with large water bladders that can hold vast quantities of fresh water.

"With the fresh water problems they are having in the region, the CO (Commanding Officer) asked us to come up with a method of distributing fresh water," said Hull Maintenance Technician 1st Class (SW) Jason Curry, hull maintenance technician shop leading petty officer, from Freemont, Iowa. "These people lost everything, and this will bring them a source of fresh water to cook with, drink and clean their belongings."

Repair division Sailors have been working around the clock to produce the in-house-designed manifolds. "We used deep sink faucets and other parts that we were going to return as surplus," said Hull Maintenance Technician 1st Class (SW) William Phinney, repair division leading petty officer from Chicago. "This was an all hands evolution. Everyone had a part in designing or building these manifolds."

The repair division designed the manifolds to have five dual-head deep sink spouts welded to a two-foot copper nickel pipe. "We all put our brains together and produced a product," said Hull Maintenance Technician 2nd Class (SW) Michael Nyland, a Trevor City, Mich., native, who helped make the manifolds. His co-worker, Hull Maintenance Technician 3rd Class Branden Stone, from Bullhead City, Ariz., echoed, "We basically made something out of nothing, but helping these people was the main goal."

Bonhomme Richard is currently operating off the Indonesian island of Sumatra providing humanitarian aid to tsunami victims.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2005 — Navy helicopters continue to airlift aid to thousands of people left struggling for survival due to the earthquake- generated tsunami that hit Indian Ocean nations from Indonesia to Somalia. The helicopters — part of newly named Operation Unified Assistance — are delivering supplies to parts of the Indonesian province of Aceh, the epicenter for the disaster. Aceh lost almost 100,000 people Dec. 26, and officials estimate that more than 155,000 people died across the region.

Secretary of State Colin Powell visited Indonesia and received a look at the affected area today. "In the course of my career, I've been in war and I've been through a number of hurricanes, tornadoes and other relief operations, but I have never seen anything like this," Powell said during a news conference following the tour. He noted he saw during his overflight of Bandar Aceh "how the wave came ashore, pushing everything in its path — cars, ships, freighters overturned, all the way up to the foothills, and then starting up the foothills until finally the waves came to a stop." "I cannot begin to imagine the horror that went through the families and all of the people who heard this noise coming and then had their lives snuffed out by this wave," he continued. "The power of the wave to destroy bridges, to destroy factories, to destroy homes, to destroy crops, to destroy everything in its path is amazing."

Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India were hardest hit by the tsunami, although Somalia — more than 3,000 miles all the way across the Indian Ocean — lost at least 200 people due to the waves.

U.S. Pacific Command officials stressed that the affected nations themselves are directing the relief operations. "The U.S. role is to support these efforts by responding to these nations to our fullest capability," said Navy Capt. Rodger Welch, an operations specialist with the command. "Our mission remains to minimize the loss of life and to mitigate human suffering."

Some 20 U.S. naval vessels are in the region and 85 U.S. military aircraft are working to deliver supplies to the survivors. U.S. servicemembers have delivered more than 610,000 pounds of relief supplies to the region. In the last 24 hours, U.S. helicopters delivered 5,560 pounds of water, 142,940 pounds of food and 2,100 pounds of supplies.

Beginning Jan. 6, six maritime pre-positioning ships will begin arriving in the region. These ships carry supplies and a built-in capacity for making and pumping fresh water. Welch said U.S. helicopters from the USS Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group began flying missions into Aceh Jan. 4. U.S. helicopters also started delivering supplies to survivors in Sri Lanka.

Eleven nations have teamed with the United States to deliver needed humanitarian aid. They are Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Germany, New Zealand, France, India, Korea, Pakistan, Singapore and the United Kingdom. The nations have provided 26 planes, 41 helicopters and 26 naval vessels. All are teaming up effectively, officials said. Joint Task Force 536 in Utapao, Thailand, is now designated as a combined support force. The U.S. support groups in Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka are now combined support groups.

In military language, the term "joint" refers to operations in which at least two services work together. "Combined" is a term used when forces from two or more countries are involved. Welch said an example of the cooperation among the nations occurred when a Boeing 737 jet blocked a runway at Bandar Aceh on Jan. 4 after striking a herd of cows. "Five countries' worth of people organized five countries' worth of equipment, and moved the aircraft within hours," he said. Welch said the U.S. military brings "speed and capacity" to the disaster response. "We can come there quickly," he said. "(We were) coordinating and operating within a day, and we can come with a lot."