MANSFIELD – Airmen from the 179th Airlift Wing Force Support Squadron officially returned home on Sunday after spending a month in Puerto Rico providing support to hurricane relief efforts.
The team departed on Oct. 4 to travel to Puerto Rico with a Disaster Relief Mobile Kitchen Trailer (DRMKT), a free-standing mobile kitchen designed to support first responders by providing hot meals and a boost in morale. Joining approximately nine members of the 179th were six members of Springfield’s 178th Wing.
Capt. Evan Howard, the officer in charge, and Senior Master Sgt. Garth Eldridge both characterized the mission as a success. According to Howard, the team served approximately 9,400 meals in the span of a month.
“Prior to our arrival they were eating self-serve MRE’s, meals ready to eat, so when we got there we were able to serve them,” Howard said. “We were also delivered local produce and food we were cooking.”
“We fed the troops, and they were happy to see us when we finally got on the ground,” Eldridge added.
The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 storm that hit the island on Sept. 20. The hurricane caused “apocalyptic” damage in Puerto Rico, wiping out electricity, water and cell networks for most of the island.
Howard said the team was stationed in the city of Caguas, Puerto Rico, in an area with downed trees, downed power lines and no running water. They set up camp inside Parque Yldefonso Solá Morales, a multi-use stadium in Caguas with a baseball field.
“We were right down the first base line feeding troops,” Eldridge said. “The DRMKT is still down there, we handed it over to the Kansas Air National Guard.”
The team served thousands of meals for Army National Guard Soldiers assigned to the 59th Troop Command from South Carolina and Soldiers from the 190th Engineer Battalion from the Puerto Rico National Guard. Using the DRMKT, which supports virtually any field-feeding scenario, the airmen could quickly prepare boil-in-the-bag meals or restaurant-quality meals for up to 1,000 people in under 90 minutes.
“The energy from the DRMKT team is a relief to the engineers who have been out all day conducting missions” said Howard.
The search for the right conditions to set up camp was a struggle initially, according to Chief Dana Togliatti who stayed behind in Mansfield and helped coordinate the mission.
“We were a little worried about communications as far as phone, but they were able to have cell service and we were able to speak with them to find out the conditions and help move them around and get them better accommodations to keep the mission moving,” Togliatti said. “They were dealing with creatures and birds and other things that come along with that.”
While the 179th and 178th Wings provided support to first responders, members from the Ohio Air National Guard’s 200th RED HORSE Squadron were in Comerio, Puerto Rico since Oct. 7, supplying potable water to the area with a Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit. The unit provides potable water from a variety of raw water sources such as wells, lakes or rivers, and can provide purified drinking water for thousands of people.
According to Tech. Sgt. Brock Mowry of the RED HORSE Squadron, their team was able to provide 210,000 gallons of water to a community serving local hospitals and schools.
“When we got on the ground we faced a lot of difficulty trying to get a site set up and had to move five different times,” Mowry said. “We found freshwater at a different site, so we built two dams deep enough to produce water.
“We met a lot of good people there, everywhere we went people were waving to us and very receptive of us being there,” he continued. “It was very rewarding.”
Although the days were long and the work was hard, all the local troops were able to maintain a positive attitude. Food cooked and served rapidly to the needy and hungry is morale-boosting and a key logistical component of any first response.
“They went in expecting the worst, but fortunately they knew what they were getting into, and knowing who they were helping helped them bond,” Togliatti said. “They’ve seen some tough stuff, and they did really well.”
