Photo By Master Sgt. Eric Amidon | Master Sgt. Catie Lammers and Senior Airman Benjamin Gustin, air transportation...... read more read more
Members of the 934th Airlift Wing on Minneapolis-St. Paul Air Reserve Station traveled to Volk Field, Wis. on Sept. 5, 2017, to conduct a joint inspection of emergency vehicles donated by the Wisconsin/Nicaragua Partners of the Americas from Stevens Point that will later be flown to Nicaragua.
“We have been supplying fire trucks, equipment and ambulances to Nicaragua for the past 20 plus years,” said Brad Martin, past president for WNPA and coordinator for the Firefighters United Program. “We’ve sent 36 fire trucks and 26 ambulances through the Denton Program.”
The Denton Program for Private Donations is a “program that allows private U.S. citizens and organizations to use space available on U.S. military cargo planes to transport humanitarian goods to countries in need.”
“Without the military assistance there is no way we would be able to get these vehicles to Nicaragua,” Martin said. “Our vehicles usually go to the medium or smaller-sized cities.”
In order to get these vehicles to their destinations, individuals such as Staff Sgt. Tsering Dhondup, a traffic management journeyman from the 934th Logistics Readiness Squadron’s Traffic Management Office, receive the cargo from the organization requesting the movement.
“The first thing we do is to validate the cargo we have,” Dhondup said. “We inspect the vehicles with the member and then prepare the shippers declaration based on our findings.”
Master Sgt. Catie Lammers, an air transportation journeyman with the 27th Aerial Port Squadron and a team chief in the Special Handling section, facilitates the next step in the process which is to ensure that any hazardous materials are declared and that all cargo is packaged, marked, labeled, and prepared properly for transportation.
Members of the WNPA and FUP have become very familiar with this process as they have been shipping donated goods and vehicles for nearly 50 years through various military installations.
Martin says that he remembers the location of every vehicle that has been shipped over the years and that the organizations visit Nicaragua often to check up on them.
“One vehicle is going to San Juan Del Sur which is kind of a resort town,” Martin said. “Two more are going to a town called Esteli, a partner city of Stevens Point.”
Of the vehicles being donated, one of them is an old military M-35 converted into a fire truck that was operated by the Abrams Volunteer Fire Department.
“The military type vehicle is really great,” said Martin. “Because they have some really rugged terrain down there that they have to get through.”
| Date Taken: | 09.09.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 12.29.2017 16:01 |
| Story ID: | 260839 |
| Location: | MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL, MN, US |
| Web Views: | 41 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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