Ellington Field ramps up for relief operations

  • Published
  • By Louis A. Arana-Barradas
  • Air Force Print News
SAN ANTONIO --  Airmen who rode out Hurricane Rita at Ellington Field -- near Galveston -- left shelters there to set up an airlift hub to help storm relief efforts.

The 147th Fighter Wing cleaned up storm debris Sept. 24 hours after the storm passed through. And by the time the weather cleared enough for flight operations in the afternoon, the first C-130 Hercules began landing, said Lt. Col. Mark Hill, a spokesman for the Air National Guard base.

Airmen from the 136th Airlift Wing arrived from Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth with C-130s full of troops and equipment. The guardsmen set up a tactical airlift control element and an aerial port. By late afternoon, airlift operations were underway, he said.

“As soon as the sun came up this morning, we were ready to go,” said Col. David McMinn, 136th Airlift Wing vice commander. Wing officials were in constant communications with Ellington Field.

Colonel McMinn said Col. Lanny McNeely, the 147th FW commander, and “79 of his closest friends spent the night at Ellington Field.” At first light, they assessed the airfield, cleaned it up and now it is “open for business.”

“The folks there have that place pretty much ready to roll,” he said.

Rita made landfall at 3:30 a.m. east of Sabine Pass, on the Texas-Louisiana border. By the afternoon it weakened and the National Hurricane Center downgraded it to a tropical storm. Forecasters said the storm will continue to weaken during the following 24 hours.

By mid afternoon winds at the base were blowing at a steady 15 to 20 mph with 25-mph gusts, Colonel Hill said. But, “we just haven’t had that much rain.”

Colonel Hill, who lives in Houston, said from what he has seen Rita spared the nation’s fourth largest city. Seven hours after the storm hit, the traffic moving south on Interstate Highway 45 toward the base was sparse and orderly, “like on a Sunday morning.” But gas stations were still closed, or did not have gasoline available.

“Houston threaded the needle, when the hurricane went east,” he said. “The town is in pretty darn good shape.”

The Category 3 hurricane caused “very little damage” at Ellington Field, which is 17 miles southeast of Houston and five miles from Galveston Bay. Still, the wing evacuated its F-16 Fighting Falcons before the storm, so it has “a lot of ramp space” available, Colonel Hill said. And it is close to the areas where Rita caused damage.

“This is a great place to stage from to help those folks in East Texas and western Louisiana,” Colonel Hill said.

But before the C-130s arrived, the base was already busy helping with recovery efforts. Colonel Hill said Coast Guard search and rescue helicopters were landing to refuel at the base just hours after the storm passed.

As the airlift wing ramps up its vital operations at the fighter base, it is “just transitioning from one disaster to the next -- with no rest,” Colonel McMinn said.

He said the Fort Worth Airmen now at Ellington Field stood up airlift operations at Gulfport, Miss., after Hurricane Katrina and “ran the airfield for two weeks.” Its aerial port troops landed at NAS New Orleans the Wednesday after Katrina hit. There were four Sailors there to offload aircraft.

“There was no way those Navy guys could possibly have unloaded all the C-17s, C-130s -- and you name it -- landing there,” Colonel McMinn said. “They even offloaded Russian (aircraft) and aircraft from a host of (other) nations.”

The aerial porters stayed, though nobody tasked them to do so. They stood up a 24-hour operation at the Navy base and offloaded 6.3 million pounds of cargo, the colonel said.

The day before the storm hit, the airlift wing flew two missions to Galveston. They airlifted out 130 first-response medical personnel.

“We’re standing by to fly them back in, once things are safe,” Colonel McMinn said.

Like tens of thousands of other military members who have been on Katrina and, now, Rita duty, the Airmen at Ellington and Fort Worth will remain busy. The colonel said the experience is invaluable -- for the Airmen and the people they are helping.

“We’re sending our very best to Ellington Field,” Colonel McMinn said.

But the Airmen from Fort Worth want to do more. They brought shelters for displaced persons and will send strike teams into surrounding communities to provide people with food, water and ice until they can return to their homes, the colonel added.

As the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast start to recover from the affects of Rita, Ellington Field will continue its vital humanitarian airlift operation. The Airmen will stay on the job for as long as it takes. Colonel McMinn is not anticipating that his troops will get any relief.

“We’ll be doing continuous humanitarian relief missions until everyone is accounted for and this operation is put to bed,” he said. “We’re ready for anything that may come our way -- we’re here to stay.”