Coronado-Based Aircraft Carrier Continues Tsunami Relief Efforts in Japan

The Navy announced on Monday that more ships are headed toward the northern coast of Japan's main island of Honshu, as the United States continues its relief efforts in the earthquake- and tsunami-stricken area.

The Coronado-based aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan—which was forced to reposition itself on Sunday so it would no longer be downwind of radiation releases from Japan's troubled nuclear plants—joined a half-dozen ships taking part in relief efforts. Four others, including the formerly San Diego-based dock landing ship USS Germantown, are on the way, according to the Navy's Seventh Fleet.   

The Reagan's commanding officer, Capt. Thom Burke, shared on the ship's Facebook page that very low levels of radioactivity were found on 17 sailors, all of whom were treated.

"We promptly took the proper precautions and the radioactivity was easily removed by using soap and water,'' Burke wrote. "The levels that were detected were very low levels.''

The USS Ronald Reagan is refueling Japanese military aircraft involved in relief efforts and using its own airplanes to distribute supplies, according to a Navy officer who did not wish to be identified.

Relief efforts by the aircraft carrier are focused north of Sendai, the city of one million located close to the quake's epicenter.

Additional ships from the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group, including the cruiser USS Chancellorsville and destroyer USS Preble, are in the region near the aircraft carrier.

As Japan recovers from the earthquake and tsunami and deals with the fear of radiation that could come from three reactors that broke at a nuclear power plant, the death toll climbs to the thousands.

The Reagan left Coronado on Feb. 2 and was headed for routine deployment in the Western Pacific and Arabian Sea.

City News Service contributed to this report.