Subscribe
STEWART AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, N.Y. (Sept. 7, 2017) -- Capt. Joshua Early didn’t spend Labor Day weekend celebrating the end of summer with a barbeque.
The C-17 Globemaster III pilot assigned to the 105th Airlift Wing was flying rescue personnel and equipment from the 106th Rescue Wing to aid his fellow Americans in Texas following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Harvey.
On Sept. 7, within days of returning from the Hurricane Harvey missions, Early was placed in a waiting status, ready to deploy within a few hours to support the recovery efforts of a new hurricane barreling towards the Caribbean and Florida.
“We were given an alert time and the alert time came and passed without word of a mission,” Early said.
The call finally came at 7:45 a.m. and by mid-morning, Early and his crew were on their way to Gabreski Air National Guard Base in West Hampton Beach, New York, without yet having a concrete plan of where they were headed, just that they would be once again teaming up with the 106th to conduct rescue missions somewhere in the Caribbean.
Maj. Paul Jancey, a pilot assigned to the 105th, said the Airmen who volunteered from his unit and the 106th are typical New York Guardsmen, who are eager to return the help they received when Super Storm Sandy New York in 2012.
“This is what New Yorkers do and we’re proud to do it,” Jancey said. “We saw the best of America when we needed help, when my family needed help, and that’s why we’re here today and that’s why we were there last week.”
Airmen from the 106th were waiting on the ramp when the 105th crew landed.
Two HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters were moved into place before the rear door of the cargo plane could be lowered.
The loadmasters aboard the Globmaster and Airmen with the 106th worked in perfect concert, quickly preparing the ramp to load the two specialized combat rescue helicopters and other equipment.
The Airmen swarmed to load the helicopters using a hydraulic winch in the front of the C-17 and, at times, old-fashioned brute force to push the craft by hand.
The helicopters were loaded head-to-toe next to each other, leaving little room for the shipping containers and more than 30 Airmen that would follow.
The Airmen didn’t skip a beat and to the uninitiated it was nearly impossible to tell they were two separate units.
Senior Airmen Ryan Stanich, a loadmaster assigned to the 105th, said the commitment to training at the two units means they are both on the same page when push comes to shove.
“They are a great bunch of guys,” Stanich said of the 106th. “They work diligently with us, so they’re definitely putting in the time and the effort. You have to put your best foot forward.
The 105th pilots were given final orders as the plane was finished being loaded—the crew was to fly to
Muniz Air National Guard Base, San Juan, Puerto Rico and from there the 106th would fly rescue missions to help the people of the different islands in the area.
The pararescuemen of the 106th are highly-trained Airmen versed in a high level of medical care, beyond that of paramedics. In combat they are flown into danger, by equally highly-trained pilots and crews, to get the wounded out of battle and render life-saving care.
At home, they are often called on in emergencies to rescue their fellow Americans as showcased in the many harrowing videos captured and posted to social media during the initial recovery efforts following Hurricane Harvey.
During the Hurricane Harvey response, the 105th transported teams from the 106th to Texas and from there the 106th made 546 rescues in less than a week’s time.
Early said the two units complement each other well.
“They’ve been great, they really have been,” Early said. “It’s honestly been some of the more seamless integrations; with the 106th there’s never an issue. They’re very operationally minded and it’s very easy for us to get behind that.”
The crew landed safely in Puerto Rico; the island was spared the brunt of the storm.
Once again, the jet sat for what seemed like mere moments before the Airmen were back to work, reversing the loading procedure.
The Airmen worked quickly, but safely, to a backdrop of lightning strikes illuminating the now dark sky.
Reports in the news and from the local Puerto Rico Air National Guardsmen indicated that the destruction was far worse in the smaller islands to the east.
The sense of urgency wasn’t lost on anyone on the 156th Airlift Wing’s ramp that night and the crew wasted no time preparing to head home once they were unloaded, unsure what the next couple days would bring.
“All of us are combat veterans, were used to the unknown, we train for the unknown, but we do it safely,” Jancey said of his wingmen. “If it was easy they would have called somebody else.”
A steady rain, heavy at times, began to fall as the crew made their final checks before taking their place on the runway.
As the jet’s engines roared to life and the ground gave way to sky, lightning continued to strike in the distance—a somber reminder that somewhere in the darkness Hurricane Irma continued on her path of destruction.
| Date Taken: | 09.07.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 09.14.2017 11:42 |
| Story ID: | 248238 |
| Location: | NY, US |
| Web Views: | 71 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, N.Y. Air Guard Units Team Up For Hurricane Relief, by SSgt Julio Olivencia Jr, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
LEAVE A COMMENT