Photo By Master Sgt. Christopher Milbrodt | Starke, Fla. -- A small team of Airmen from the Florida Natioanl Guard's 202nd...... read more read more
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Members of the Florida National Guard’s 202nd Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer (REDHORSE) recently answered the calls for help from the citizens of Puerto Rico following the devastation of Hurricane Maria.
“We were tasked to assist the National Guard Bureau’s Joint Engineering Team in Puerto Rico,” said Air Force MSgt. Chester Norman, an emergency management specialist with the 202nd. “We sent a team of 18 Airmen to work with the Disaster Response Bed down Sets (DRBS) that were on their way to Caguas and Muniz.”
The DRBS is an equipment kit designed to provide living space and essentials such as beds, showers, sinks and bathrooms for up to 150 people per kit. REDHORSE units like the 202nd are required to set-up and deploy these kits annually in order to be rated as mission ready. The Florida Airmen used the requirement and associated federal training funds to augment the multitude of Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) forces being sent to the island.
“We sent a very small team of individuals down there, where a lot of them have never done anything like this before,” said Lt. Col. Robert Niesen, commander of the 202nd. “This was an incredibly valuable learning experience that directly benefits Florida with preparedness.”
Upon arrival, the small team from Florida comprised of HVAC, utilities, electrical, power production and heavy equipment operators, immediately got to work improving the living conditions of the relief camps. The first tasks completed were fixing some of the cooling units, repairing a front-end loader and fixing the boiler to provide hot water to the camp.
“Prior to our guys getting there, everyone was taking cold combat showers,” said Norman. “They got the boiler online the first day because hot showers can change the mood of the entire camp.”
The Florida Airmen are just a small piece of the joint service and civilian recovery mission operating in Puerto Rico. More than 20,000 men and women have converged on the small island to provide life saving measures and start the rebuilding process since the storm hit. As with any disaster, tough lessons were learned about how to be more prepared for responses in the future.
“The mission here has been challenging and rewarding,” said Norman. “This was an opportunity to not only help the Puerto Rico National Guard, but to mentor them on disaster response and recovery.”
Prior to this mission, the 202nd REDHORSE returned late last year from a deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom followed by a deployment to Latvia for training and humanitarian assistance in August. The same red hats arrived home just in time to respond to Hurricane Irma in September and then be immediately activated for the Puerto Rico mission.
“We have had an extremely busy year in the REDHORSE. Our Airmen have performed and performed well,” said Niesen. “They have accomplished a lot this year and I couldn’t have asked for more.”
| Date Taken: | 12.06.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 12.06.2017 16:15 |
| Story ID: | 257698 |
| Location: | FL, US |
| Web Views: | 282 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, The red hats are coming; Air Force engineers work to help Puerto Rico recover, by MSgt Christopher Milbrodt, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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