U.S. officials said Thursday that transport planes and personnel already are flying into and out of Utapao, about 90 miles south of Bangkok.

A U.S. embassy spokesman said P-3 Orion surveillance planes were already flying search and rescue missions over Thailand and the first supply planes arrived in Thailand overnight.

The Pentagon has said C-130 cargo planes would haul relief supplies to Thailand from Yokota air base in Japan. They will also be used to ferry supplies, people - "whatever's needed" - from Utapao to affected areas, the embassy spokesman said in a telephone interview.

In coming days the crews could begin making airdrops of emergency water supplies.

"There's going to be planes and people zipping off all over the place," he said.

Utapao is well known to pilots of the Vietnam War, when it served as a base for U.S. B52 bombers.

A military forensic team also was due to arrive to help in the huge task of identifying the dead. Some 80,000 people are feared dead and millions are homeless in nearly a dozen countries after last weekend's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The military also dispatched ships from an aircraft battle group to help with the relief effort. The USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier strike group, which was in Hong Kong, was diverted to the Gulf of Thailand.

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