Airmen spruce up living space for retirees displaced by Katrina

  • Published
  • By Rudi Williams
  • American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON (AFPN) --  Fifty Airmen applied several hours’ worth of old-fashioned elbow grease Aug. 31 to prepare building nearly 400 military retirees displaced from Gulfport, Miss., by Hurricane Katrina.

“(I want to) make it look nice and clean, so when the folks from Gulfport arrive … they can say, ‘Hey, somebody here really cared,’” said Master Sgt. Terry Rawlins, first sergeant of the 11th Communications Squadron at Bolling Air Force Base, Washington D.C. “I want it to look like they never left home.”

Sergeant Rawlins was in charge of a 50-person crew from Bolling that volunteered to spruce up the building for the retirees arrival. The Gulfport, Miss., residents arrived here Sept. 2.

The building was closed in June for renovation. Assisted-living residents from Gulfport will live in the home’s Scott assisted-living facility and King Health Center.

“As military folks, we go everywhere else to take care of people, and this was our opportunity to take care of our own,’” Sergeant Rawlins said. “I heard some of these folks coming in can’t walk. They lost their home, and it’s not like they can go back to anything, so we’ve got to prepare this place to look and feel like home for them.

“When I look at what’s going on on television and I see folks there who are struggling, I can imagine what happened to the folks we’re helping out,” Sergeant Rawlins said.

More than 400 of the 600 residents rode out the hurricane in Gulfport’s 11-story high-rise beachfront facility, but Katrina’s devastating winds knocked out running water, power, telephone service and everything that made the building livable for the residents, whose average age is 77.

Ten feet of water reportedly surged into the ground floor of the Gulfport home, ruining the kitchen, dining room, bowling alley and long-term-care facility, and submerging the emergency generator. Katrina also blew down the home’s water tower.

Staff Sgt. Denae Greenly, of the 11th Mission Support Group at Bolling, said it makes her proud to be able to help the now-homeless retirees.

“My grandfather is a retired veteran, and if he were in the same position I would want anybody to do the same,” Sergeant Greenly said. She said what happened to the retirees in Gulfport touched her heart so much “because they’re just human beings who lost their homes.”

“If I lost my home, I’d want someone to come and help me,” she said.

“After seeing all the devastation on TV news, I felt the need to help,” said Tech. Sgt. Kernovia Roberts from the legal services office at Bolling. “This is a good way to give my portion. It feels great to be able to do this.”