Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Ian Safford | A flight crew from the Kansas Air National Guard’s 190th Air Refueling Wing run...... read more read more
A flight crew from the 190th Air Refueling Wing soars 1,000 feet above the ground in a KC-135 Stratotanker as Col. Lee Norman, state surgeon for the Kansas Army National Guard and secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, radios down praise and appreciation to frontline healthcare workers during Operation Kansas Strong May 19, 2020.
On April 22, President Donald Trump announced Operation America Strong to honor the health care workers who are placing themselves in harm's way during the COVID-19 outbreak. Seeing that local flyovers rarely get approval, Col. Daniel Skoda, wing commander of the 190th Air Refueling Wing, took advantage of this opportunity and requested approval for the 190th to participate with a special flyover for Kansas health care workers.
After receiving approval, Maj. Kimberly Marling, executive officer for the 190th ARW, immediately started contacting local police departments, emergency management offices, and hospitals in the flyover locations letting them know about the flyover mission named Operation Kansas Strong.
“When I was planning this event I had the opportunity to reach out to all the hospitals,” said Marling. “Just hearing their voices when I explained what we were going to do was unbelievable, you could just tell how excited they were.”
Marling also invited Col. Lee Norman, the state surgeon of Kansas, to share encouragement as the crew flew over each location.
“We have been working long and hard since January with COVID-19 that has been an immense problem worldwide,” said Norman. “Our health care providers and first responders have gone the extra distance and it is really important that we remind people how much we appreciate their work.”
Operation Kansas Strong started with a midair refueling assignment in northern Louisiana where three F-16s joined the tanker in the air to refuel prior to their own state’s flyover. After the KC-135 filled up the fighters, the F-16’s ran a few intercepting drills before the tanker crew made its way back to Kansas.
The second part of the operation was the flyover that started in Emporia and continued on to Manhattan, Topeka and Lawrence. In some locations parades were held, in others health care workers stood on the roofs of their hospitals as people lined the streets to get a good view of the flyover. As the tanker flew over the hospitals, police departments, and other first responder locations, Norman radioed and spoke with a hospital representative at each location with special words of appreciation and encouragement from him and Governor Laura Kelly.
“It was really great because we had communications from the aircraft so I got to greet everybody and thank them,” said Norman. “I could hear them cheering and everything. It was really fun and important.”
| Date Taken: | 05.20.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 06.03.2020 17:42 |
| Story ID: | 371401 |
| Location: | TOPEKA, KANSAS, US |
| Web Views: | 64 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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