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By Kathleen A.K. Lopez
Air Force Materiel Command Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- When
disaster struck the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama and Florida in the form of Hurricane Katrina,
Air Force Materiel Command stood up its crisis action
team to assist with relief efforts to the region.
Since then, support has come from each of the command's
bases -- from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to Hanscom
AFB, Mass., and eight other bases in between. The support
has been in the form of people and equipment.
"We've deployed nearly 150 people commandwide,"
said Jim Dibert, a program analyst with the AFMC directorate
of operations who is also part of the crisis action team.
"We've sent people and some equipment from civil
engineering, security forces, contracting, public affairs
and personnel, as well as medics and chaplains."
Additionally, transportation equipment has been sent to
the affected areas, said Becky Harkleroad, AFMC headquarters
deployment cell chief.
Once in place, AFMC people were put to work. In New Orleans,
deployed AFMC security forces are directly assisting local
police officers, Dibert said. At Eglin AFB, Fla., a convoy
of eight security-escorted vehicles brought Keesler AFB,
Miss., evacuees back to their homes in the Biloxi area,
base officials said.
Medics are helping displaced hurricane victims at recovery
centers, Dibert said. In some instances, locations of
some specialties, such as the medics, are in evacuation
areas, such as Lackland AFB, Texas.
An OC-135B from Offutt AFB, Neb., began conducting flights
from here Sept. 1 to capture aerial imagery for the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, base officials said.
Wright-Patterson has the only U.S. government facility
dedicated to processing and duplicating such imagery,
which is being used to find communication lines and assess
the status of roads and evacuation routes from New Orleans,
Biloxi and Gulf Shores, Miss. The photos also provide
critical search and rescue information such as identifying
areas for helicopters to land. As a secondary benefit,
the images can help officials assess damage done to Department
of Defense facilities and the status of oil rigs and hospitals
in New Orleans and surrounding areas.
Not all support from AFMC is contingent upon people or
equipment deploying from their respective bases. For instance,
the runway at Kirtland AFB, N.M., has been used for Defense
Department, federal and commercial aircraft to stop long
enough to deliver evacuees, and to move equipment or other
people.
Lodging personnel at Eglin and Robins AFB, Ga., have provided
nearly 1,400 bed spaces for both Katrina evacuees and
FEMA personnel.
Overseeing all of this activity has been AFMC's CAT, which
stood up Sept.1. It serves as the staff arm of the command's
battle staff, a body of AFMC decision makers. For this
operation, named Katrina Relief Ops, Lt. Gen. Terry L.
Gabreski, AFMC vice commander, led the battle staff.
For the first 72 hours, the CAT was a daily 24-hour operation,
with all directorates represented. On Sept. 5, Col. Frank
Albanese, AFMC CAT director, stepped down many CAT directorates
to a 12-hour daytime operation with telephone standby
through the night.
"Typically, we stand up the CAT to assist a base
through a crisis," Albanese said. "In the case
of Katrina, we're here to help out the entire Gulf Coast
region.
"We are pre-positioned to respond to requests from
the field, be it with people or equipment," said
Albanese, who is the AFMC command and control, contingency
operations and plans division chief within the directorate
of operations. "Or, we facilitate battle staff directives
to make jobs of the folks at base level easier to carry
out."
One example of a battle staff directive was the decision
to ensure any displaced Defense Department people would
not be turned away from any AFMC base, Albanese said.
"These people have been through so much, the last
thing we want is for any Air Force member to show up at
an AFMC gate and receive a hard time about getting on
base where they can find some shelter and comfort,” the
colonel said.
As such, the directive was compiled in the CAT and presented
to and approved by Gabreski.
Directed to AFMC installation commanders, the directive
asked for "compassionate assistance to these displaced
DOD personnel." Commanders were directed to ensure
procedures were in place to provide immediate assistance
to these people, beginning with security forces, lodging
and family support.
For instance, when evacuees arrive at AFMC base gates,
a process to accept Airmen without proper identification
should be in place. At lodging, any displaced service
member or Department of Defense civilian is to be treated
as a Priority 1 for placement into billeting, the only
exception being long-term student guests. Family support
centers are to have inprocessing procedures, as well.
(Courtesy of AFMC News Service. Joel Fortner, of the 88th
Air Base Wing public affairs, Monica Morales, of the 96th
ABW/PA, and the Secretary of the Air Force, Office of
Public Affairs contributed to this article.)
