The Military Sealift Command’s USNS Red Cloud, now in the Gulf of Mexico, is expected to deliver heavy-duty diesel generators and a crane to Hurricane Katrina-ravaged sections of the Gulf Coast this week, officials said.

The large roll-on/roll-off ship left Naval Station Rota, Spain, on Sept. 9 loaded with $1.9 million worth of equipment donated by the Defense Department to state governments.

The generators, which had been slated for decommissioning because of their age, instead can be used to power hospitals in Louisiana and Alabama, according to a press release from Military Sealift Command Europe. The 82,000-pound diesel generators provide power to ships at the Rota port. A 30-ton crane is being donated to Alabama.

The command is contributing in other ways to the Katrina disaster relief efforts as well, including the deployment of the 250-bed hospital ship USNS Comfort. The command also chartered four cruise ships for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide temporary shelter for relief workers and the homeless.

More information is available on the command’s Web site at www.msc.navy.mil.

GI guilty of taking indecent liberties with kidsA 1st Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment soldier from Friedberg, Germany, was found guilty last week on four charges of taking indecent liberties with children under the age of 16, according to a 1st Armored Division news release.

All of Staff Sgt. Kristopher M. Shippy’s victims were 12-year-old German nationals, the released stated. None of the children were related to him.

At a court-martial Sept. 14 in Giessen, Shippy was found guilty by a panel of three officers and six enlisted members. He was acquitted on one count.

A military judge sentenced Shippy, 25, to a four-month prison term, reduction in rank to E-1 and a bad-conduct discharge, the release stated.

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