Airmen build tent city for relief workers

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Stephen Collier
  • 49th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFPN) --  While helicopters continue to airlift victims of Hurricane Katrina to the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, a group of Airmen are constructing a massive tent city for relief workers.

More than 70 Airmen of different backgrounds and units have come together to form the beginnings of the 4th Air Expeditionary Group to support recovery efforts in and around New Orleans.

“These tent cities are going to take care of the Air Force men and women who have been assigned here at Louis Armstrong International,” said Colonel Leonard Coleman, 4 AEG commander. “Here, we can give them the care and support they need to execute our humanitarian mission.”

The 4th AEG comprises Airmen from several bases, including Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.; Shaw AFB, S.C.; Holloman AFB, N.M.; Scott AFB, Ill.; and Tyndall AFB, Fla.

The unit includes typical mission support group Airmen, including 35 security forces patrolmen and 20 services specialists.

The 4th AEG is bedding down in a 550-person Basic Expeditionary Airfield Resource Base, or BEAR Base set. These sets, maintained and deployed from the 49th Materiel Maintenance Group here, will give its residents not only billeting, but latrine, shower and laundry facilities.

Senior Airman Stacy Pitts, a lodging clerk from the 55th Services Squadron at Offutt AFB, Neb., said the new air-conditioned facilities will help victims in the long run.

“When I heard about what happened in New Orleans, I wanted to go down there to help the people out,” Airman Pitts said.

Colonel Coleman added that if the Air Force is called upon to do more for the people of this hurricane-ravaged area, they would.

“If the Department of Homeland Security asks, we could send in more people and assess damage, initiate repairs and other missions if required," he said. The Air Force is ready to support more people if we get the call to.”