OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. -- Members of the 55th Wing recently supported U.S. Northern Command response efforts to Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm which devastated the Bahamas in early September.
The 55th Mission Support Group provided support to the U.S. Agency for International Development, enabling the broader relief efforts addressing the acute humanitarian needs of the Bahamian people.
Specifically, the quintet help stand-up the 331st Air Expeditionary Group at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida.
“We were grateful to have the opportunity to integrate with a joint force response to a foreign disaster,” said Col. Alan Dayton, 55th Mission Support Group commander. “While the environment was outside our daily job jar, the core tasks we performed were similar to the day-to-day activities at Offutt in the flood recovery operations.”
During the response to Hurricane Dorian, Department of Defense forces supported USAID and the Government of the Bahamas with military-unique capabilities, such as assessing airfields, rapidly transporting response teams and their equipment, as well as transporting commodities and life-saving medical supplies and equipment, including ambulances.
Upon orders to deploy, the 55th Wing team traveled to 1st Air Force headquarters, Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. for job-specific training before transiting to Homestead.
Their duties at Homestead included expediting U.S. Northern Command task orders into air tasking order executions carried out by joint aircraft assigned to Air Forces Northern, among other assigned duties.
“It was very challenging and dynamic,” Dayton said. “We were simultaneously working up the chain with headquarters Air Combat Command, AFNORTH and NORTHCOM while balancing the requests and needs of our joint forces at the base level.”
Flexibility was key to Dayton and his team.
“Before any mission, you try to make sure you have the right complement of people to execute what the mission dictates as efficiently as possible,” said Chief Master Sgt. Stacy Pearson 55th MSG superintendent. “Regardless of what skills your team has, they always step up and fill any experience void. They just find a way to make it happen and that’s exactly what this team did.”
Dayton and Pearson were joined in Florida by Lt. Col. Brent Tschikof and Staff Sgt. Thomas Wilson of the 55th Logistics Readiness Squadron and Capt. Susan Guinane of the 55th Force Support Squadron.
“Being able to directly support disaster relief is an amazing opportunity we all wish wasn’t necessary,” Pearson said. “Hopefully, we’ve assisted the Bahamian people in getting the support they need.”