united states is prepared to give. hi, chris. yeah, just got off the phone with u.s. forces japan saying they have not yet received a formal request from the japanese government. he also said this is a very different mission than what we re used to. he says think of haiti, things like that where we came in and jumped in and started to help. he said every step of the way has to be mapped out and approved by the japanese government. it s a technologically savvy country with a lot of pride. everything has to be formally requested before the u.s. military can act. let s take a look real quick at the map and i can show you a bit about what the u.s. is dealing with here. you can see the plant, there are helicopter crews running relief missions right around in that area. and for a second day, those u.s. helicopter crews came back with low-level contamination of
radioactive cloud. while u.s. troops are not on the ground trying to cool the leaking reactor, navy helicopters continue search and rescue missions around there. marine second lieutenant croft told me, we are ready and prepared to deal with anything we may come into contact with,that could be radiation. two u.s. helicopter crews have already been exposed to elevated, albeit, low levels of radiation. actually we just got word from the pentagon, it s now giving helicopter pilots potassium iodide pills before they get to japan, as a precautionary measure. talk back today. are we asking too much of u.s. troops in japan? send your comments to facebook.com/carolcnn. and i ll read some of your comments later on this hour. thank you, carol. what s ahead on the rundown. brian todd goes block to block with a search and rescue team in one devastated japanese town. u.s. debt may limit the u.s.
the uss ronald reagan which had been close to shore has now been further, has moved further north away from that down wind plume of radiation. in addition as we look at the second map, you can see that several ships that were supposed to go to the pacific side have been rerouted to the sea of japan on the western side of japan to try to get away from that radiation. in addition, the helicopter crews that have been running regular missions into that affected zone have been told to keep their sleeves down and been told to keep the windows closed in their helicopters and some of them have been given the potassium iodide pills that can ward off the effects of radiation. several of the helicopter crews have come back contaminated with radiation but they were soaked down with soap and water. their clothes and uniforms were destroyed. when they were retested they were found to be all clean. in addition, there are personnel, u.s. military, civilians, and their families,
survey debris fields out at sea and the military also says it has provided the japanese government with two fire trucks. no u.s. military personnel were lost in the quake or the tsunami in japan. all u.s. military personnel based in that country have been accounted for. that said, several sailors were given potassium iodide tablets today as a thyroid cancer preventative after they returned from flying humanitarian missions. radiation detection equipment found evidence of low levels of radiation on either the sailors or their helicopters as well as a number of additional helicopter crews later in the day. our navy says the humanitarian missions nevertheless will continue. now it s time for the ed show. thanks for being with us tonight. good evening, americans. welcome to the ed show tonight from new york. our lead story tonight a live report coming up from japan in just a moment. the unfolding disaster there and coming up the battle ground that must not be ignored right here in th
most complicated humanitarian missions in history, frankly. they are already dealing with the devastation, which is complicated enough. but now the nuclear reactor situation. navy officials are saying some of their helicopter crews have been exposed to low-level radiation. they think everybody is okay, at least so far. but they ve given some of these air crews potassium iodine to make sure they re safe and not harmed. some of the u.s. navy ships in the area are being moved to different locations because of the atmospheric conditions. and then look at the financial side, which you know better than anyone. treasury secretary tim geithner was on the hill earlier today and was asked by some senators with the fact of the asian markets plummeting now, and so many asian companies suffering what kind of impact will that have on u.s. securities? specifically american pensions that may be tied in to some of the asian securities? he assured the senate that he