CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
Seventeen Reservists from the 315th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron answered a call to duty on Sunday and were deployed to Lackland AFB, Texas, to stand at the ready for looming evacuations caused by Hurricane Dean.
The 17 Reservists, carrying more than 600 pounds of medical and life support equipment, deployed literally at a moment's notice, with less than four hours elapsing between their time of notification to their time of take-off. The 315 AES was the first to be deployed to Texas on this mission but were quickly joined by aeromedical evacuation squadron members from Pope AFB, N.C., Travis AFB and March AFB, Calif.
"There was no lack of people dropping whatever was going on in their own lives in order to do this," said Capt. Randy Wyatt, 315 AES medical service corps officer and a member of the deployed aeromedical evacuation operations team.
With the passing of Tropical Storm Erin earlier this week, forecasters are now focused on Hurricane Dean, still churning in the Caribbean. Dean is the first hurricane of the 2007 season, and promises to be a big one, according to weather reports.
"Even though it is a major category four hurricane now, it is projected to become a category five storm before it crosses the Yucatan Peninsula early Tuesday morning," said Master Sgt. Tom Crawford Aug. 20, lead meteorologist for ABC news 4 and Reservist with the 315th Airlift Wing public affairs office. "The danger is coming from the storm surge associated with this storm and, of course, the high winds."
A hurricane is considered a category five storm when sustained winds reach 155 mph.
The Yucatan Peninsula and Islands located in the Gulf of Mexico were at the greatest risk from Dean if it maintained its current course, but with Texas receiving such a large amount of rain from Tropical Storm Erin this week, the outer bands of Dean could produce enough rain to cause additional disastrous flooding in that state.
The deployed members of the 315 AES are staged in Texas for just that reason. They could be asked to evacuate people from anywhere in Dean's path of destruction.
"This is simply what we do, this is what we train for," said Maj. Sunny Gates, 315 AES operations officer. "We are used to going into areas where we don't know what we are going to get, but our members are so well trained they will take people on board, assess their conditions and handle anything that comes their way. We are adaptable to any situation."
The 17 Reservists from the 315 AES will be activated for an indeterminate amount of time, but weather dictating, could return home after 10 to 14 days.