Lackland Airmen among thousands on pre-Rita duty

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  • By Louis A. Arana-Barradas
  • Air Force Print News
SAN ANTONIO --  As Hurricane Rita forces millions to evacuate the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast, Airmen at many bases are ready to join first-response relief operations.

The Air Force joins a massive Department of Defense mobilization that will send thousands of troops into areas affected by the hurricane. Defense officials said the military’s mission is to save and sustain lives, help effect a full recovery and provide vital post-hurricane services.

“We hope and pray that Hurricane Rita will not be a devastating storm, but we've got to be ready for the worst,” President Bush said in Washington on Sept. 22.

But if it is a killer storm like Hurricane Katrina, the military will be ready, he said. To coordinate with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and direct military relief efforts, the Pentagon stood up Joint Task Force Rita at Fort Sam Houston here.

A response to Rita -- expected to make landfall on the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast early Sept. 24 -- has been underway for several days. Thousands of troops are already in place at numerous bases and await the order to join relief operations in areas hit by the storm. And special military units continue tracking and keeping an eye on the Category 3 hurricane.

By the eve of the storm, Airmen had already been on the job three days.

Lackland Air Force Base here has been a hub of activity. Since Sept. 21, the training base has been the reception point for military members and their families that evacuated their homes along the Texas Gulf Coast. The families, most from Navy bases, are staying in dormitories. The base also has 10 other locations, including the fitness and community centers, ready to house evacuees.

“We’ve already processed more than 700 families,” said Oscar Balladares, a base spokesman.

Across the Lackland flightline, the Reserve’s 433rd Airlift Wing has also been busy since Sept. 22. Early that day, wing elements flew into airports at Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas, to help evacuate people. Both cities are in the storm’s projected path.

The wing sent a mobile aeromedical staging facility and a command cell to Beaumont aboard C-130 Hercules and C-5 Galaxy aircraft. To Port Arthur, it sent a smaller contingency aeromedical staging facility. A 35-person aeromedical evacuation team went in, set up operations, and began to assess the patient load and how to best evacuate them, said Capt. Jameson Durham, from the 908th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Maxwell AFB, Ala.

“We went there to help move them out,” the captain said. The reservist deployed to Lackland to help the 433rd AES after Hurricane Katrina. Now he is charge of the unit’s crew management cell.

Such staging facilities are the first stops for patient evacuation. Most of the aeromedical evacuation crews, which include doctors, nurses and medical technicians, provide medical care. A few feed information to Airmen directing the airflow so they can ask for airlift.

After two days on the job, Airmen at the staging points moved thousands of patients, the captain said. But as the hurricane neared land, the wing sent in aircraft to airlift the facilities back home.

“Nobody is riding out the storm there," Captain Durham said.

The captain said more aircrews arrive at the base each day “from all over the place.” There are 13 five-person crews already waiting to fly aeromedical evacuation missions. He expects they will be busy.

“We’re just pre-positioning assets -- anticipating the worst-case scenario,” he said. “Then, after the hurricane passes, we’ll start flying missions.”

The unit helped move more than 6,800 people -- 1,306 of them patients and about as many special-needs patients -- said Senior Airman Jonathan Simmons, a 433rd AW spokesman. Of those, 488 needed medical assistance. Military transports airlifted most evacuees to cities in Texas or elsewhere, he said.

Aboard some aircraft were critical care air transportation teams from Lackland’s Wilford Hall Medical Center. The teams, which include doctors, provided specialized one-on-one care to patients in critical condition.

“We evacuated more patients today (Sept. 23) than on the heaviest day during the Katrina evacuations,” Airman Simmons said.

More than 1,100 arrived at Lackland. There, San Antonio Fire Department emergency medical service crews waited for them. Lt. Jim Naegelin and his crew have been on the job at since Katrina. Paramedics unload patients, triage them and move them to hospitals or service centers.

“When aircraft arrive, I send paramedics in to help patients who need assistance,” Lieutenant Naegelin said. On Sept. 22, there were 33 patients that needed help. The Airmen work hand-in-hand with their civilian counterparts. The working relationship is excellent, he said.

“We’re professional people, and we really enjoy working with professionals. And in everything I’ve seen here, these guys are top notch,” the lieutenant said.

However, by late afternoon Sept. 23, the pace at the base had slowed noticeably. The last of the C-5s returned to the base from Beaumont. Everyone caught their breath and switched to wait mode.

“But as soon as they call us, we’ll be ready to go,” Airman Simmons said.

In the meantime, Airmen wait for the inevitable order to launch. They wait to help with the mop-up and to help with the recovery after Rita hits -- just like they did after Katrina.