The Americans flew missions from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln along a 120-mile stretch of Sumatra's ravaged coastline, further revealing the extent of the destruction. The tsunami, triggered by the world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years, has killed more than 139,000 people in Asia and Africa; considerably more than half the deaths were on Sumatra.

Many of the 60 victims picked up in more than two dozen missions Monday - including children, elderly and two pregnant women - were too weak from eight days with little food or water to speak or move. Doctors said they suffered from pneumonia, broken bones, infected wounds and tetanus. Many appeared deeply traumatized. At least 25 were in critical condition.

The U.S. pilots ferried the survivors to a medical field station in Banda Aceh. The ones not rushed on stretchers were placed on a blue plastic sheet, among them a young girl holding a Snoopy doll. Some cried, and aid workers stroked their arms and backs to comfort them. They were given chocolate wafers, water, sweaters and T-shirts.

In the shattered village of Meulaboh, an injured man stretched out on the ground, hooked to an intravenous drip that hung from a tree branch outside an overcrowded hospital emergency room. In Lam Jamek, another ruined village, survivors used an elephant to pull a vehicle to the provincial capital.

The U.S. pilots said the damage was stunning. The five-vessel U.S. carrier group and much of the crew, which moved into position Saturday, served in the Persian Gulf during the Iraq conflict.

``In my 17 years of service, I have never seen such devastation, and I hope that I'll never see such again in my life,'' said Senior Chief Petty Officer Jesse Cash, of Albuquerque, N.M., who has served in Somalia and Liberia.

Stories Of Survival

There were other stories of rescue and survival.

When the tsunami swept Melawati from her home on Sumatra, the only thing that saved her was a floating sago palm tree.

Five days after the deadly wave, a Malaysian tuna ship found her clinging to the tree - bitten by fish and traumatized by the experience - but alive after subsisting on the palm's fruit and bark, officials said Monday.

Melawati, 23, was spotted alive in waters near Aceh province, said Goi Kim Par, manager of the Malaysian International Tuna Port. Like many Indonesians, Melawati uses one name.

Despite her injuries and weakness, she remained conscious and arrived for medical treatment Monday at Malaysia's northwestern Penang island, Goi said.

Four Indonesian fishermen were spotted by a reconnaissance helicopter over the weekend as they drifted near the Indian archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar, in shock and nearly speechless after nine days at sea, the Indian coast guard said Monday.

First, their engine broke down, stranding them on the open water. Then the tsunami struck, wrecking the coasts around them.

The men were rescued Saturday by the coast guard off Campbell Bay, said Anil K. Pokhariyal, commander of the coast guard ship. They were brought to Port Blair, capital of the archipelago, on Monday.

``They were on a wooden dinghy,'' he said. ``They waved to us and gestured in sign language, asking for food.'' He said the men had tied a cloth to a post to try to make a sail.

More Aid On The Way

More American help was coming. The USS Bonhomme Richard and two other warships carrying a Marine expeditionary unit, dozens of helicopters and tons of supplies steamed into the Indian Ocean on Monday to join relief operations off Sumatra and Sri Lanka.

The Pentagon also has decided to send the USNS Mercy, a 1,000-bed hospital ship based at San Diego, to join the relief effort, officials said.

In Bangkok, Thailand, Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived accompanied by Gov. Jeb Bush on a journey intended to assure the devastated region of U.S. support.

``The president wanted both of us to come out here to demonstrate U.S. commitment to the nations of the region and to make an assessment as well, to see what else we might need to do,'' Powell said.

Powell said that while 15 Americans have been confirmed dead, 4,000 to 5,000 others remain officially unaccounted for, since their relatives have called State Department hotlines to report that they were in the region and had not been heard from.

But he and other officials cautioned that there was not a one-to-one correlation between queries and individuals, and Powell suggested that most probably were fine.

For Powell, the trip to Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka will be one of his last tours as secretary of state before his successor, Condoleezza Rice, is confirmed.

For Jeb Bush, who is a possible contender for the presidency in 2008 or later, the trip is a major turn on the international stage. The governor, who oversaw Florida's response to four hurricanes, suggested that his presence on the trip, not only as a U.S. official but also as the president's brother, would send a powerful message of sympathy.

``I think family matters in a lot of places, just as it does in the United States,'' the governor said. He recalled in 1988 being asked by his father, then President-elect George H.W. Bush, to travel to Armenia, after an earthquake there cost more than 25,000 lives.

``We went, and it made a big difference that a family member would go - this was on Christmas Eve - go to a far-off place,'' Bush said.

Information from The New York Times was used in this report.