AFMC provides assistance in Katrina's aftermath

  • Published
  • By Kathleen A.K. Lopez
  • Air Force Materiel Command Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFPN) --  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, Mr. 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, Mr. 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," Colonel 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 Colonel 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, Colonel 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 General 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 servicemember 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.)