10,000 lbs. food, 700 lbs. pot donated to Haiti
By Elizabeth Kenny ekenny@seacoastonline.com

PORTSMOUTH NAVAL SHIPYARD - A human chain of Coast Guard members helped unload a shipment of humanitarian aid in Haiti. Later, the crew members seized more than 700 pounds of marijuana.
That’s the short version of the Coast Guard cutter Reliance’s seven-week deployment. On Tuesday, the Reliance’s commanding officer and crew told the longer version of the story to the Portsmouth Herald.
On March 29, the Reliance and its 80-member crew arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with 10,000 pounds of humanitarian aid and a small boat in tow to be donated to the Haiti Coast Guard.
"Because we get reports on the political climate in Haiti, we went in with a heightened posture," said Cmdr. Graham Stowe, referring to the political violence that has been an issue in Haiti for more than a decade. "We were ready, and some crew members were armed."
But the mission was conducted without incident, Stowe said.

Eric Fisher, a fireman aboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Reliance, recently returned to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard with the ship after a seven-week mission.Photo by Rich Beauchesne
Most of the humanitarian aid delivered - basic food and health necessities - had been donated and packed by church organizations, Stowe explained.
"We were quite a supply vessel," he added.
Once the Reliance arrived in port, 75 crew members formed a human chain, Stowe said, and within an hour had delivered the aid to United Nations officials.
In reflecting on the entire deployment, crew member Archie Rivers, who has been in the Coast Guard for the past 19 years, said, "This is the greatest crew I’ve ever worked with."
Rivers, a native of Winter Harbor, Maine, said he joined the Coast Guard for missions like this.
After leaving Haiti, the ship set off for the Bahamas, where the crew members were directed to board a vessel believed to be carrying contraband.
The Coast Guardsmen boarded the Belize-flagged ship, whose crew members were of various nationalities, at about 6 p.m. on March 30.
Just after midnight seven Coast Guardsmen lifted a rug and linoleum floor to access a portal leading to a room where they found more than 700 pounds of marijuana, Stowe said.
That amount of marijuana has a street value of $1.8 million, according to Stowe.
"That’s what we live for," said crew member Matt Cronin about the seizure. "It’s rewarding, exciting and charged a lot of people up."
The Reliance returned home to the shipyard on May 1 and is scheduled to deploy again in mid-July, according to Stowe.