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MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan – Misawa Air Base was shaken violently March 11 by the earthquake that brought so much destruction to Japan but, the base only sustaining minor damage with no injuries or loss of life.
This stroke of good fortune was due in part to the standards used to build Misawa Air Base and the quick thinking and fast actions of servicemebers and wing agencies to lend support and establish command and control operations.
“Our airmen and our airmen’s family members aided in recovery efforts almost immediately after the earthquake,” said Lt. Col. Dwayne Robison, 35th Civil Engineer Squadron commander. “The earthquake struck the region when the base was in the middle of an operational readiness exercise. So we already had our Emergency Operations Center and our Unit Control Centers stood up. This enabled people to call in immediately with reports of damages and we had no delay with responding to their needs.”
Some of the calls emergency responders and maintenance crews were dispatched on were small fires, broken waterlines, steam lines and a host of other issues.
However, the base was spared the brunt of what the earthquake had to offer, which was the Tsunami that swept ashore devastating large tracks of land in the Myagi Prefecture, south of the base.
Now the base was tasked with two missions, one to recover operations here and the second was to act as a jumping off point for humanitarian relief and rescue workers.
Rescue teams from the United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand and Misawa Air Base will be convoying to the area’s most affected by the tsunami to start recovery operations.
“We hope to provide as much assistance as possible,” said Alan Downes, U.K. search and rescue team member. “As soon as we complete the search and rescue portion of this operation we will start turning our focus to the humanitarian relief side of the situation.”
Moreover, concerns of a Japanese nuclear power plant in trouble, locate further south in the prefecture, way on the minds of both rescuers and base residents.
“Whatever may happen to the power plant down south, will not affect the rescue teams in the Miyagi Prefecture or the residents of Misawa City or the air base,” said Col. Michael Rothstein, 35th Fighter Wing commander. “Our main focus is on the recovery of the base and assisting our Japanese allies. We will do whatever it takes to get us both on our feet again and I believe we have the best people on the job for this task.”
| Date Taken: | 03.11.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 03.15.2011 23:16 |
| Story ID: | 67138 |
| Location: | MISAWA AIR BASE, AICHI, JP |
| Web Views: | 181 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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