Photo By Staff Sgt. Dustin Biven | Soldiers load pallets of bottled water onto a CH-47 Chinook helicopter at the Houston...... read more read more
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I remember staring at my phone as it rang. The caller ID was my supervisor. Was I in trouble? I answered. "Pack your bags" she said "we fly out to Texas tomorrow."
My unit had just been assigned to cover the Hurricane Harvey relief efforts in Houston. We flew in on Aug. 30, 2017. As selfish as it sounds, I dreaded the idea of going. I genuinely felt like my unit's presence was unnecessary; I thought we were going to be sitting around doing nothing all day, every day, while other public affairs officials out of Texas covered the "cool" and "unique" stories. I was not expecting to even come into contact with a single civilian let alone a hurricane victim. I'm so glad I was wrong.
On Sept. 1, I had the privilege of covering a group of Texas Army National Guard Soldiers as they went on mission to aid in the relief effort. My first sergeant approached me early that morning and told me I would be flying with Soldiers whose goal was to off load supplies to Sour Lake, Texas, a city east of Houston that was greatly affected by the hurricane. They loaded a CH-47 Chinook helicopter with five pallets of water and two pallets of MREs (Meal Ready-to-Eat). I assumed we'd deliver supplies to fellow troops awaiting us and they would further distribute the supplies to the city after we left. I didn't expect to really have interactions with victims of the flood caused by the hurricane.
We began our flight and flew over Houston and the surrounding areas that were hit by the disaster. I'd seen photos online of the destruction caused by the hurricane but the photos don't do it justice. Flying over cities and seeing entire homes and trees under water is simply horrifying. It's important to keep in mind that a majority of Houston has recovered from Hurricane Harvey; however, the areas still underwater were a complete mess. Moving eastward, seeing entire fields flooded was heartbreaking. It was hard for me to imagine something like this possible. My heart pounded as I wondered what those affected by the flood must have lost and how they were feeling.
After almost an hour of flight time that felt no longer than 10 minutes, we began to make our descent onto Sour Lake. Our landing spot was a small field in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Houses surrounded the field in a square shape. As we began to descend, initially all we could see below was the fire department personnel awaiting our arrival. As we got lower, people began to leave their homes and gathered on all sides of the field so they could see what all the noise was about. When we'd finally landed, I looked around for fellow troops that I thought would help us offload our supplies but instead we were greeted by a group of Sour Lake residents waiting for us in the hot, humid Texas heat. A man in a forklift showed up and offloaded the supplies from the helicopter. As we watched the forklift remove the cargo, the civilians began to approach us.
At first, some older men approached us and shook our hands, thanking us for bringing them much needed supplies. A young boy, who couldn't have been over 10 years old, told me they'd been waiting a couple days for supplies and were relieved that help had finally come. The children initially looked intimidated by our uniforms but when we talked to them a bit, they warmed up and wanted us to stay. The pilots embraced the children, holding some and taking pictures with them, even letting the families walk around the helicopter. We received hugs from old women crying, thanking us for saving them. The whole experience felt like something scripted out of a movie. How could a city struck by so much turmoil be so embracing of our company? I was expecting a broken city with broken people. Boy was I wrong.
One lady began telling me of a hero that came out of Sour Lake; he wore the Army uniform and deployed. She went on about how amazing of a person he was and how he made the entire city proud. She then paused and said how badly she wished he would have been able to make it home. She said this city is familiar with loss and they know how to come together in hard times. At this moment, an older lady came in to give me a warm, embracing hug and I could hear in her voice that she was choked up and holding back tears. As she hugged me she told me, "My father was a (Army) Ranger. I used to think he was invincible, the way he could survive those jumps and missions and still make it home. I thought when he deployed, he'd easily make it home just like he always did. Until he didn't. I wouldn't be who I am without everything he was able to provide for me and my family." I responded, still hugging her, "He was a real hero." At this point she could no longer hold in her tears and began to weep, "He really was - and so are all of you," she said. Everybody that came to show their appreciation made sure every one of us knew just how much of an impact our presence had on that city that day.
As we flew back, I thought to myself just how grateful I am to have covered such a remarkable moment. It was eye-opening and is by far the greatest, most-humbling experience of my life. Our supply distribution was one of many that the U.S. Army and others have done to aid the Hurricane Harvey relief effort. Although the people of this region are a long way from being fully recovered, they're on their way, and having courageous and encouraging fellow Americans like those in Sour Lake, Texas, are what make the rebuilding process possible.
| Date Taken: | 09.01.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 09.03.2017 16:21 |
| Story ID: | 247062 |
| Location: | SOUR LAKE, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 100 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Flying Into the Hearts of the People, by SGT Jacob Banuelos, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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