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By Army Capt. Steve Alvarez
American Forces Press Service
MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- Some Airmen
with the 908th Airlift Wing here returned to their home
base Sept. 6 after participating in an overseas deployment
in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Before they even
returned, however, their commander said they were ready
to serve again, only this time for disaster-relief operations.
"A lot of folks have been chomping at the bit to
help," said Lt. Col. John Stokes, 357th Airlift Squadron
commander. He said that his crews sent him e-mails that
said, "As soon as we get back, we're ready to turn
around and do hurricane-support missions."
The 908th, an Air Force Reserve Command unit, was put
into action soon after Hurricane Katrina left the Gulf
Coast in ruins Aug. 29.
"They call us up and ask us to do things, and we
just do it," said Maj. Jerry Lobb of the 908th AW.
"We get a phone call, and four hours later we're
gone."
The wing was tasked by U.S. Northern Command, the lead
command element for military disaster-relief operations,
to fly airlift missions supporting the disaster area.
The wing provided aircraft, aircrews and aeromedical personnel.
About 60 Airmen from the wing have been called up to support
hurricane-relief missions, including security forces and
aerial port squadron Airmen.
The 357th AS is just one of many squadrons from the 908th
supporting Katrina efforts. The 908th Aeromedical Evacuation
Squadron is also supporting disaster recovery.
"Our personnel are mostly serving in Louisiana and
the coast," said Lt. Col. Ronnie Roberts, 908th AES
commander. "They have been flying civilian personnel
evacuation."
Roberts, a nurse when he is not in uniform, said most
Airmen in his squadron provide health care aboard aircraft.
"The needs are unbelievable," Colonel Roberts
said of the disaster conditions. "I'm very proud
of our crews. They've stepped right up."
Airmen from these units have evacuated about 60 military-affiliated
evacuees from the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Gulfport,
Miss., to here and later on to Andrews Air Force Base,
Md.
Many of the elderly passengers had been awake for more
than three days and were extremely frail, Lobb said.
"Most of these folks weren't mobile, and they were
in their upper 80s," said Maj. Steve Catchings, a
C-130 Hercules pilot. "It took two to three hours
just to get them off the buses."
Catchings said that while some were suffering from mental
and physical exhaustion, one man asked a pilot if they
were flying in a C-130. When the pilot answered that it
was a C-130, the man said, "I've jumped out of those
before."
A common thread among military responders to Katrina's
aftermath is a knack for improvising. The magnitude of
the situation has required an extraordinary amount of
flexibility from service members.
Airmen with the 25th Aerial Port Squadron displayed such
flexibility when they were tasked to load generators bound
for Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., which sustained a direct
hit by Katrina.
The configuration of the generators made them too large
for transportation by aircraft. Undeterred, the Airmen
allocated trucks and drove the generators to Keesler so
Airmen there could have power.
Crews have been flying steadily for the past week, flying
a truck and 10 disaster-relief responders to Mississippi
from Wyoming, and evacuating the elderly from the Gulfport
military retirement home to Maryland. They have also moved
10 chaplains from Georgia to the disaster zone, and flew
aeromedical "shuttle" flights around the disaster
area out of San Antonio where most of the medical-evacuation
activities are being staged.
Before the hurricane made landfall, the 357th was ready.
"If any taskings came down, we had two crews ready
to go," Catchings said.
But Roberts admits his crews have seen things in the last
week they ordinarily do not experience on military medical
flights, including an attack when a dog bit a nurse who
was providing care to a patient.
"We're professionals," Roberts said. "We're
out here, in natural disasters and combat."
Stokes said he has more volunteers than he does tasks.
"Something you see particularly in the Guard and
Reserve is that they should have a chapter of 'overachievers
anonymous,'" he said. "They're very active across
the gamut of what they do for the Guard, Reserve and their
communities. You wonder when they have time to do the
normal things in life."
Catchings summed up the squadron's current emotional state.
"We wish we could do more," he said. "It's
a huge logistical undertaking. We just let them know we're
here and we're ready."
