Katrina Relief From Jersey

George Grand

Looks like they have enough concrete for us to land on at Biloxi. We start the relief missions out of here tomorrow. Lotta **** can go in the back of a tanker. I understand they are hurting for some bad attitude down there. That's where we come in.

The -130's will probably be going in before us. They have been sitting ready since the **** hit the fan, and can land on a much shorter runway than us. Those guys have the big back doors that open up and a fire truck can drive in or out. We can carry much more weight in cargo than most airlifters, but are limited with outsize stuff like that because of the size of our cargo door.

They made the announcement about 1:30 P.M., and by 1:45 enough folks for about 25 crews had volunteered. We only have 20 airplanes. Hopefully that means that as we return fresh crews can hop on as soon as the airplanes are fueled and turned for another trip. Feels good to be doing something for those poor souls.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

shack

nadams

Have a good trip, George. Do me a favor and recommend that they move the damn city instead of rebuilding.

George Grand

It's the real deal. We're sending the first three crews home now, to go into crew rest. Being how I'm on Crew 3, I'm wrapping my desk up now and I'll transmit from home later.

This is going on around the nation. You're home states are all probably involved, especially if they have tanker or cargo aircraft. We did this for Hurricane Andrew, and the Air Guard really shines with this stuff. We generate and launch airplanes in about 1/4 the time it takes the Air Force. Nice bunch of folks, but too much red tape and beauracracy involved.

George

steveinaz

Be safe brotha.

cfrizz

Get plenty of rest George & stay safe while you're down there.

heiney9

Be careful George and do what ya gotta do. Our nation is coming together once again to help those in need. Wish I could do more from here.

H9

Mike682

Excellent George...like the others said be careful, especially with the health conditions down there..

Mike

George Grand

Well, I got bumped from Crew 3 to Crew 6, go into crew rest at 4 A.M. tomorrow morning, and eligible for a mission at 4 P.M. tomorrow afternoon. We have 4 aircraft ready to go at this time with cargo roller systems installed. That allows us to palletize stuff and just roll the pallets onto the aircraft. The rest of the fleet if tasked, will just floor load whatever we have to haul. The Guard Bureau will send the taskings out as required. New Orleans Int'l. is open for emergency airlift only, as well as Gulfport and Biloxi. We'll see what happens but to be real honest, I wouldn't be surprised if they just leave all the tankers in place, and just do the mission with conventional airlifters like the C-130's and C-17's.

It would be nice to be able to help, but right now it looks like I may end up with a very long weekend.

Polkersince85

George, you've got a part of us flying with you.

TroyD

Hey, you never know, I might pull up to your airplane in a K-loader.

BDT

George Grand

The Air Force could never respond that quickly. We'll end up unloading by hand. We figure we can haul 30-32,000 lbs of bottled water before we run out of room.

I don't know where, or when we're going.

George Grand

My unit started launching tankers to the relief effort today. Yesterday I was removed from that alert, to pull alert over the holiday weekend in case the Pres wants to put fighters over the cities. Don't know what the relief tankers are hauling but my guess is water and food.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

beardog03

be safe bro...