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Scott personnel ready for natural disasters

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Christie Putz
  • 375th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  Members of Scott's Joint Total Force have been called upon in preparation for and in the wake of several recent natural disasters throughout the nation. 

In addition to the support the 618th Tanker Airlift Control Center provides in coordinating missions in and out of the affected areas, specialized teams from around the base have responded, often within a moment's notice.
Some even earning recognition from the highest levels. 

In preparation for Hurricane Gustav, which was forecasted to hit the still ravaged areas from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many offices had personnel on standby waiting for the opportunity to provide relief. 

Three years, to the day, after Katrina made landfall on southeast Louisiana, crews were again deploying to some of the same areas 

"I received the call on August 29th at 11:45 while I was shopping in the commissary," said Tech. Sgt. Ralph Onesko, Global Patient Movement Requirements Center mission controller. "Within an hour and a half I was packed and waiting at the passenger terminal for a flight out." 

While his job typically deals with moving injured servicemembers from deployed locations back to U.S. hospitals, that afternoon he and three others boarded a C-21 headed to Baton Rouge, La., to provide support to a different audience. 

The group was part of a four-person Joint Patient Movement Team, which was created as a result of the devastation Katrina caused to the communities of Louisiana. The mission of these teams is to safely evacuate patients from community hospitals and nursing homes in the projected path of a natural disaster. 

"Many patients were moved out via ambulance," said Sergeant Onesko. "But those who weren't able to travel by ambulance were turned over to us." 

In coordination with the Louisiana Emergency Operations Center, Sergeant Onesko, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Cesa, U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Beverly Glauber and U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Holmes spent the next three days evacuating patients to pre-determined Federal Coordination Centers in Little Rock, Ark., and Oklahoma City, Okla. 

Working alternating 12-hour shifts and moving on average 50 patients per flight, the team was able to move more than 700 patients from shoreline facilities in the three days before the storm hit. 

"The only problem we ran into is that the aircraft just couldn't get back fast enough," said Sergeant Onesko. 

This left the crews with a surplus of patients as the storm continued to near. 

"On the last day, the majority of the patients were still there," he said. "It took 12 airframes to get everyone out before the winds got so strong that we couldn't fly ... But we did it." 

However, their journey wasn't quite over yet. The storm then took an unexpected turn north and charged for their location, bringing 105 mile per hour winds and knocking out power to an estimated 1.5 million people in the state. 

Additional concern arose that if generators didn't hold out until power could be restored, an additional 2,000 patients in inland locations would need to be evacuated by air as well. 

By Sept. 3, nearly three days after the storm had hit, power was restored to most locations and the patients inland were able to remain in place. 

With the team's mission now complete, they and other responders were invited back to the Emergency Operations Center before heading home. Governor Bobby Jindal was expected to join them and thank everyone for all they had done. Another thank you came from President George Bush himself, who had come to visit after declaring 34 Louisiana parishes as disaster areas. 

"[The president] shook our hands and personally thanked us for getting people out of harm's way," said Sergeant Onesko. 

By that time, more than 2 million people had been evacuated out of the area, a collective effort of all the agencies gathered. 

"It really is a privilege as a member of the United States military to be able to assist those in need of support during a crisis," said Sergeant Onesko. "This is what we are here for, and this is what we do."