By Sgt. Richard Andrade
MIRE BALAIS, Haiti — A U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft dropped 69,000 pounds of Meals-Ready-to-Eat and bottles of water via parachute for the villagers of Mire Balais, Haiti, Jan. 21 in support of Operation Unified Response.
The operation was a well coordinated effort involving the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, the United Nations security forces and the Haitian police forces. Elements from Nepal and Canada helped coordinate crowd control a day prior.
Dropping the supplies by air was determined to be the most effective method of getting the much needed supplies to the village of Mire Balais.
The villagers waited patiently in the sugar cane field. The much needed supplies began to drop amid shouts of approval.
Chief Master Sgt. Ty Foster, of the Special Operations Command Contingency walked towards one of the boxes and began to take out a knife from his belt. As he began to cut the straps holding the boxes together, he said, "Every part of the palette, the Haitians will use, the cardboard will be used for firewood, and the straps can be used as belts for their pants."
As Foster walked towards an MRE palette with its parachute still stuck in a tree, he continued, "The parachutes that were not recovered, can be used for shade."
"The U.S. did a good thing today," said Foster.