JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
A little over a year ago, President Biden announced that the U.S. would undertake an ambitious project to rush aid into Gaza - a floating pier that would provide much-needed food to a civilian population facing potential famine. But that project was largely unsuccessful, and a U.S. service member died as a result of the undertaking. Now, new details are emerging about that death, as well as the troubled U.S. effort. Steve Walsh with WHRO in Norfolk joins us with more. Hi, Steve.
STEVE WALSH, BYLINE: Hi, Juana.
SUMMERS: So Steve, I recall that there were really problems from the start with this pier project, so could you just remind us how it came about?
WALSH: So the idea was to find alternative ways to get food and other aid into Gaza after the Israeli government dramatically slowed down the amount of aid that was getting into the region through land crossings. Prior to this, the U.S. was dropping food aid by plane with limited success. Army boats set sail from Virginia in March to build a mobile pier system. There was debate within the Pentagon and with USAID about whether this whole thing would work, providing up to 150 truckloads a day of aid. In the end, it only provided a fraction of that.
SUMMERS: Let's turn to the accident now. I understand that you were able to get a copy of the Army's report about it. What did it find?
WALSH: Well, it happened inside the massive cargo ship USNS Benavidez. The report describes a forklift driver as racing down a ramp when it struck Sgt. Quandarius Stanley. This happened overnight. The mission requirements kept changing. Just after midnight, the soldiers were ordered to load another 66 pallets into trucks by 6 a.m., which is a tremendous amount. The report says the forklift driver was going more than double the recommended speed when the forklift struck Stanley. The driver says they just didn't see him. They could only make out the top of his head, but it was too late.
SUMMERS: OK. Now, a number of humanitarian organizations criticized the pier project, basically saying it was a distraction from more serious efforts to open land crossings into Gaza. What does the report have to say about the project's effectiveness?
WALSH: Well, you know, there have been a couple reports about this, and the pier system only operated for about 20 days and never came close to the goals outlined by the Biden administration. At least one frustrated soldier told investigators that no one seemed to care about the well-being of the rank-and-file soldiers loading cargo. The report also describes soldiers working 10-plus hours a day in an all-out effort to get as much humanitarian aid out the door and into Gaza as possible, despite the constant challenges.
SUMMERS: Steve, take stock of the project, if you can. I know that you talked to the mother of the soldier that was killed. How does she feel about the project?
WALSH: Well, yeah, that's right. I spoke with Sgt. Stanley's mother, Anna Stanley. She hadn't been given a copy of the report, though she had heard from - some of the details from his friends. This is what she told me.
ANNA STANLEY: Well, they should have had somebody walking in front or some kind of light. Something flashed that - you know, people were saying that it was dark up there. They couldn't really see. It was very chaotic.
WALSH: Before leaving Virginia, the 23-year-old had reassured his mother that he would be OK. I asked her if she felt the mission was worth it.
STANLEY: It was worth it. That's what he wanted to do. So yes, it was worth it.
WALSH: So an ambitious effort, but the project fell far below expectations. In the end, the pier delivered enough aid to feed 450,000 people for about a month. It was the most high-profile effort by the Biden administration to feed the over 2 million people who remain on the brink of starvation in Gaza. But the report by the Department of Defense inspector general on the pier raises a lot of questions, including whether the military has the equipment and personnel to even attempt an operation like this in the future.
SUMMERS: WHRO's Steve Walsh in Norfolk, Virginia. Thank you.
WALSH: Thanks, Juana.
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