More active, Guard troops join Katrina response

  • Published
  • By Donna Miles
  • American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON (AFPN) --  President Bush announced Sept. 4 the deployment of 7,000 more active-duty forces to support hurricane relief operations along the hurricane-devastated Gulf Coast.

There, they will join 5,000 other active forces and almost 22,000 National Guardsmen already on the ground evacuating stranded people, getting food, water and other supplies to victims and relief agencies and supporting security efforts.

"Hour by hour, the situation on the ground is improving. Yet the enormity of the task requires more resources and more troops," the president said.

Within the next 24 hours, National Guard Bureau officials expect to have 30,000 Army and Air Guardsmen and their equipment from more than 40 states in the region to help with relief and rescue operations. Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco said the military presence is having a calming effect on New Orleans.

"We are seeing a show of force," Governor Blanco said. "It's putting confidence back in our hearts and in the minds of our people."

The president promised to finish evacuating people from the area as quickly and safely as possible, to ensure that criminals do not prey on those left vulnerable and not to "allow bureaucracy get in the way of saving lives."

Military support for the effort, being coordinated through Joint Task Force Katrina at Camp Shelby, Miss., remains focused on saving lives, delivering food, water and other support and evacuating people from the area.

Search-and-rescue efforts intensified Sept. 4 with the arrival of additional military aviation assets to the region. As of the morning, 139 military helicopters were supporting rescue and humanitarian operations, and another 17 aircraft were on the way, U.S. Northern Command officials reported. This is in addition to a massive Coast Guard aviation response.

Evacuations continued in flood-choked New Orleans, where NORTHCOM officials reported almost 25,000 people have been evacuated. U.S. Transportation Command was continuing to fly 10,000 people out of the city to Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, officials said. Among the evacuees were patients at the New Orleans Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The Air National Guard flew 721 sorties in the past few days, evacuating more than 11,000 people to safety and delivering 3,600 tons of life-saving supplies and equipment into the devastated area, National Guard Bureau officials said.

More than 100 pilots, pararescuemen, combat controllers, medical and support Airmen from Air Force Special Operations Command were helping remove the injured, ill and stranded from New Orleans, Air Force officials said.

In New Orleans, National Guardsmen moved 20,000 people out of the Superdome in a safe and orderly fashion and secured the convention center, providing sufficient food and water for all people, National Guard Bureau officials said.

The Air Force is providing strategic humanitarian airlift assistance to the region by airlifting tons of relief materials and military support personnel and equipment into several affected areas, Air Force officials said. This includes more than 9 million packaged meals from the Defense Logistics Agency.

Aircraft being used to fly these missions include the C-5 Galaxy, C-17 Globemaster III, C-141 Starlifter and the C-130 Hercules, which are being operated by active and reserve component forces from bases in Washington, California, Massachusetts, Ohio, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, New Jersey, Mississippi, New York, West Virginia, and as far away as Puerto Rico, officials said.

Additionally, more than 500 combat engineers, communication specialists, medics and helicopter crews have deployed to the hurricane-struck region from Air Combat Command bases, Air Force officials said. Air Force Space Command was deploying aircrews and support Airmen from four of its bases to Columbus AFB, Miss., to provide additional help, command officials reported. The Airmen are being drawn from wings at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyo.; Minot AFB, N.D.; Malmstrom AFB, Mont.; and Vandenberg AFB, Calif.

Soldiers from Fort Gordon, Ga., were also in the area, providing desperately needed communications support to the Federal Emergency Management Agency Joint Task Force Katrina, Army officials reported. The communications support includes both secure and nonsecure voice and data communications and video teleconferencing.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services was working with the Defense Department to establish 10 mobile Federal Medical Shelter facilities, each able to accommodate 250 patients, along the Gulf Coast. Two facilities will be positioned at Naval Air Station Meridian, Miss.; two at Air National Guard Station Meridian, Miss.; two at Eglin AFB, Fla., and one at Fort Polk, La., NORTHCOM officials said.

The Air Force's Medical Rapid Response Force is operating at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, where it is establishing a 25-bed hospital with emergency medical and surgical capabilities. A mental health team and dental team also deployed to New Orleans, Air Force officials said.

Airmen from Eglin AFB are setting up two 250-person hospitals, with more than 200 medical staffers, and a 1,000-person refugee camp in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. Officials said the tent city will include showers, food and electricity for patients' families and refugees.

A 60-person contingency aeromedical staging facility team, from Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland AFB, arrived in the afflicted area Sept. 2 to provide support and medical care for patients being evacuated. Officials said the team will set up a 24-hour tent facility to care for patients until they can be moved to a larger medical center.

Patients getting airlifted from the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport were brought to Lackland AFB where a hub has been established to support the aeromedical evacuation portion of Hurricane Katrina relief operations.

As patients are brought to the medical hub at Kelly Field, they are processed for further transport to one of the 31 nearby hospitals or trauma centers, officials there said.

Other Air Force installations are actively supporting hurricane response operations.

Maxwell AFB, Ala., and Barksdale AFB, La., are serving as federal operational staging areas to expedite the movement of relief supplies and emergency personnel to affected areas.

Keesler AFB, Miss., which received heavy damage itself during Hurricane Katrina, has also been designated as an operational staging area. Red Horse engineers from Hurlburt Field, Fla., put Keesler's runway back into operation so it could support recovery operations, then began evaluating other facilities at the post before they could be used to house displaced servicemembers and their families.

The former England AFB, La., is serving as an intermediate staging base for National Guard personnel arriving from other states to support the Louisiana relief efforts.

As servicemembers and their assets supported the response effort, additional assets were put in place to support the responders.

Airmen from Holloman AFB, N.M., are deploying five transportable tent city sets to house military and civilian personnel at Eglin AFB, Keesler AFB, and the New Orleans airport, ACC officials reported. Each set includes billeting, kitchen, water purification, shower and latrine facilities for more than 500 people each.

Additionally, support operations ranging from maintenance stations to fuel points are being set up to keep relief efforts going.

Those involved in the military response expressed gratification in their mission.

"The people of New Orleans are very happy to see us," said Lt. Col. John Gay, deputy commander of Joint Task Force Arkansas, which includes 600 Arkansas National Guard troops supporting the effort. "The destruction is devastating, but our morale is high and we're dedicated to our mission and to helping these people to the best of our ability."