AF continues hurricane relief effort in Jackson

  • Published
  • By Louis A. Arana-Barradas
  • Air Force Print News
JACKSON, Miss. --  After more than a week of 24-hour search and rescue operations from here, HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters switched to flying day missions Sept. 8.

But the 347th Expeditionary Rescue Group -- with elements from six active-duty, Guard and Reserve units -- has not finished its vital mission, said Capt. Dave Faggard, a group spokesman.

“We’re now focusing our efforts on daylight operations,” he said. “But we’ll still have aircraft and crews on alert just in case we need to fly search and rescue operations at night.”

The pace of the group’s search-and-rescue operations has slowed. The changes come as civilian authorities step up their house-to-house searches in the New Orleans area. Estimates are that more than 10,000 people remain in the flooded city. And many of those do not want to leave.

Search-and-rescue teams continue flying over the city. But their operations now focus more on moving people from collection points to the New Orleans airport.

“We’re still getting a few rescues here and there,” said Master Sgt. Kurt Duncan, an avionics guidance and control troop with the Reserve’s 943rd Maintenance Squadron at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. But he acknowledges that the days when helicopters had 100-plus rescues are finished.

The sergeant from Goldsboro, N.C., said pararescuemen told him some people in New Orleans are trying a new strategy in an effort to remain with their homes.

“People will wave (the helicopter) down to talk to the (pararescuemen),” he said. “But all they’re doing is trying to give them a grocery list so they can go out and get food for them.”

On Sept. 8, more than a dozen crewmembers and maintainers boarded a C-130 Hercules to go home. But on the flightline in front of them, helicopters launched for the day’s missions over New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana and Mississippi.

Taking a breather in an air-conditioned break room just a few feet off the aircraft ramp, Senior Airman Jayvee Sy watched a television newscast on the latest events taking place in hard-hit New Orleans. A communications and navigation troop, he deployed with the 763rd Maintenance Squadron from Nellis AFB, Nev. He sees the work tempo differently than Sergeant Duncan.

“Yea, we’re working. But it has gone down significantly,” said the Airman from Cerritos, Calif. Still, he is working 12 hours a day, nonstop.

That was not the case in the first few days after the units arrived Aug. 31. Sergeant Duncan said after getting a two-hour notice to deploy, he arrived to a base where the people were working with an extreme sense of urgency he had not felt before. The mood at the base was unlike what he experienced on deployments to Southwest Asia.

“This is one of the more fulfilling (temporary duty assignments) I’ve been on,” he said.

But when he arrived, he was not so sure.

“I worked 52 hours straight when I got here,” said the sergeant, who volunteered to deploy. Then the pace went to 12-hour days. Now, he said, Airmen are working at least nine hours.

Airman Sy, who said everyone in his unit volunteered for this mission, went to technical training school at Keesler AFB, Miss. Hurricane Katrina hit the base hard, knocking out its training mission and forcing the evacuation of most of its people. When he saw pictures of the damage, he felt compelled to do his part in the relief effort.

“I saw pictures that showed it was destroyed,” he said. “I just wanted to help.”

Now that he is helping, the Airman feels good about what he is doing. It feels better serving here than when he was in Afghanistan, he said. The reason, he said, is obvious.

“Here, I can see what’s happening on TV -- that we were actually pulling people out and helping save lives,” Airman Sy said.

Group officials said the unit will continue search-and-rescue operations in the area for as long as necessary. To date, its aircrews have rescued more than 4,000 people. Because people still remain stranded in New Orleans, there is no plan to pull out from this base.

“I don’t think we’re leaving any time soon,” Airman Sy said.