Courtesy Photo | Tech Sgt. Darren Vine, a member of Lousiana National Guard's 159th Security Forces...... read more read more
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September 14, 2005
By Spc. Sherree Casper
153rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
BELLE CHASSE, La. -- Green and blue have meshed together to create a joint security force based out of Belle Chase Naval Air Station near New Orleans.
Lt. Col. Don G. Lockard, commander of the 151st Military Police Battalion based in Charleston, W.Va., was tasked as the provost marshal for Task Force Belle Chasse.
The Charleston resident oversees a combination of 16 Army military police and Air Force security forces units from six states to include West Virginia, Wisconsin, New York, Utah, Iowa and Louisiana. More than 140 Soldiers and Airmen comprise the security element of Task Force Belle Chasse.
West Virginia elements for the task force include the Army National Guard's 151st MPs, 154th MPs, 156th MPs and 157th MPs. West Virginia's Air Force Security Forces Squadron assets participating in the hurricane relief efforts are from the 167th Airlift Wing in Martinsburg and the 130th Airlift Wing in Charleston.
Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 150th Armor Regiment and the 1st Battalion, 201st Field Artillery Regiment have been tasked with security missions also.
"The sole focus is to help the people out in the community that have been devastated by Hurricane Katrina," Lockard said. "Helping fellow Americans in their time of need is what we are doing."
And it's what they apparently are well trained for.
"We have a pretty good cross section of America and forces from the Air Force and Army," he noted. "They are working together fantastically. We have quality Soldiers and quality Airmen."
The mission of the military police and security forces based at Belle Chasse Naval Air Station is to run security and support missions to areas hit hard by Hurricane Katrina.
They are charged with moving equipment, supplies and troops into New Orleans.
When not running missions at the naval air station, the MPs and SFs can be found escorting National Guard Soldiers from around the country to their duty stations in and around New Orleans.
"I can not be more pleased with all of the levels of cooperation with everyone involved," Lockard said.
The military police battalion commander said that although they've been devastated by the storm, the Louisiana National Guard "has taken us in like one of their own."
Waiting to help escort a contingent of Oregon National Guard Soldiers to the French Quarter in downtown New Orleans, Tech Sgt. Darren Vine with the Louisiana National Guard's 159th Security Forces Squadron said many members in the unit were hit hard by the storm losing homes and much of their belongings.
"We have lost our families, our homes, suffered family dislocation," said the lifelong New Orleans native.
Yet, he noted: "We are expected to maintain a facade of humanitarian efforts for others," he said, clearly worn out by the toll the storm took on his home and family as well as the demands of mobilization for a natural disaster.
Vine said the members of the 159th SFS are "victims of Katrina, the same mission that we are serving."
"We were the first ones to jump in because we were the closest," said the 41-year-old father of six small children.
Vine said his wife and four girls, two boys -- ranging in age from eight months to 12 years -- were evacuated to a one-bedroom apartment in Champagne, Ill.
"They went from living in a five-bedroom house to a one-bedroom apartment," Vine said.
He said a church in Champagne, Ill., donated the apartment and $600 for clothes. The Red Cross has given the family $700.
In addition, they have received a $20,000 grant for the children to attend private schools with their uniforms donated. He said the University of Illinois has also gotten involved in the humanitarian efforts for his family.
"I have heard that the University of Illinois was going to put us in a home," he said.
Vine was tapped to lead the mission into New Orleans for an obvious reason.
"They picked me to lead the mission because I am a local," he said. "We are protecting the transportation assets."
In a group huddle before boarding a convoy of New York City Transit buses, Tech. Sgt. Michael T. Turner with the 159th SFS instructed Soldiers and Airmen to keep their "eyeballs peeled back and watch for things. The area is a secure area though."
"We are one big team," Turner said. "Let's get the guys there and get them back."
"Our job is to see that they get where they are going," Turner said. "After getting troops where they are going, the meat and potatoes of our job is done."
Vine was leading Soldiers and Airmen with the Wisconsin National Guard on that day's mission.
Spc. Amanda R. Paulus, 22, of Baraboo, Wis., is a member of Wisconsin National Guard's 32nd Military Police Company based in Madison, Wis.
"I have never done anything like this before," said Paulus, who has been in the military for nearly five years.
"I thought that it would be nice to help other people," she said. "I don't get a chance to do something like this back home."
She was surprised that she would have to be armed in her own country.
"It's your own people," she said of the surreal situation.
Working in the frozen food department at a Wal-Mart in Baraboo, Paulus said, "everyone told me to get those looters."
She said she was taken aback by the destruction of Hurricane Katrina.
"I didn't know how bad it was going to be when we got here," she said. "And it is bad."
Sgt. John T. Stuhlmacher with the 32nd MPs was told on a Thursday at 5 p.m. that he was being activated the following morning at 7 a.m. to travel to New Orleans.
"This is why I joined the Army in the first place, to help people," said the 26-year-old Soldier from Milwaukee, Wis.
A nine-year veteran of the Wisconsin National Guard, Stuhlmacher said he manages his family's Hallmarke store back home.
"My fiancée wanted to come down too, but her commander wouldn't let her," he said of Sgt. Kristina R. D"Anca, an administration specialist with the Recruiting and Retention Command.
"What you see on TV and what you see in person is so much different," the military policeman said. "It's so much worse in person."
Military orders specify that Stuhlmacher be mobilized to the disaster area for two weeks.
But he's not betting on it.
"When we were in Iraq we were suppose to be there six months," he said. "We were there 15 months."
Senior Airman Peter J. Postler, who hails from Antigo, Wis., said his wife of 13 years, Darlene, encouraged him to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
"She encouraged me to go and the boys think it's neat," said the father of five boys ranging in age from two to 13.
"They are proud of their dad I believe," he said. "My dad said he was proud of me too."
Postler said the trip to New Orleans was both "exciting and depressing at the same time." He said Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the area with many vehicles leaned up against telephone poles and trash heaped in piles across the community. Deserted streets also lent to the eerie atmosphere.
The Airman with the 115th Security Forces Squadron said he's here 'to help restore order" to New Orleans.
"I never thought something of this scale would happen in the U.S.," Postler said.
hkat
| Date Taken: | 09.14.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 09.14.2005 13:56 |
| Story ID: | 3010 |
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| Web Views: | 416 |
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