WEBVTT

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- I'm Senior Master Sergeant Mark Wassenbauer

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with the 148th Fighter Wing.

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I am the airfield manager back at home station.

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Actually, well, I had volunteered,

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there was a message that came down through Guard Bureau.

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They were looking for an airfield manager

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to help out setting up operations and running the airfield

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on a civilian airport on the other side of the island

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at Ponce at the Mercedita Airport.

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So I came down here, worked with the

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mobile air traffic control squatter.

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They had set up a temporary mobile air traffic control tower

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because that airfield wasn't a controlled airfield,

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didn't have a working tower at all,

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a lot of other nav aids and lighting issues going on there,

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so my job as an airfield manager was to come down,

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assist the contingency response group team that was there

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in place to get the airfield up and running,

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because we were having a lot of cargo aircraft

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and FEMA was using that airport,

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and the Army National Guard units were coming in

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with helicopters, so there was a lot

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of military assets at that facility.

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So my job as an airfield manager was there

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to help mitigate some of the risk,

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make sure things were being done properly,

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and to make sure that everything ran smoothly

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and safely for both military and civilian operations.

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And the local community is very, very appreciative.

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You see a lot of the stuff in the news at home

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on local TV, and all that kind of stuff,

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or CNN, but when you go out and talk to these people,

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they really genuinely appreciate all the stuff

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that we're doing, all the help we're giving,

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and the comfort and food, and the water.

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It's really heart-wrenching, it really is.

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Well, I had volunteered to come down to help out

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with Hurricane Maria relief support.

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I'm an airfield manager back home,

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I came down here working out of Ponce

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on the other side of the island at a civilian airport,

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so my job there as an airfield manager

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is to make sure that the airport ran smoothly.

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Safety-wise, we had a lot of military assets,

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Army National Guard, FEMA, lot of gray-tail

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Air Force assets coming in and out, cargo planes,

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so my job was to make sure things ran smoothly and safely.

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Well, I deployed down here as an airfield manager

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in support of Hurricane Maria Relief Support,

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assigned to the Ponce civilian airport, Mercedita,

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on the other side of the island.

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My job really is to make sure that all the military assets

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flown in and out of the airport there,

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that everything was being done safely

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and that we have a good usable airport

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for all the FEMA and military aircraft, including civilians.

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Well, it's my first time here in Puerto Rico,

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so everything's been quite the experience,

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so coming from just having snowed before I left

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Minnesota from Duluth coming here,

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and the heat and humidity, sweating like crazy,

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so it's a little bit of a change,

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but it'll be, it's been fun, it's been fun

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working with the local community and the local people here.

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Yeah, here it's a little bit different,

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we deal with wildlife issues back at home,

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deer, bear, wolves, all that kind of stuff, birds.

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Here you have larger birds, you have the occasional dog,

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they have horses that are pets

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that break into the airfield as well.

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They trot around a little bit, so your job is to try to

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mitigate the safety there, and get them off,

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and disperse them and get them away

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from the runway so that nothing gets hurt.

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Well, Duluth back home, we deal with bird mitigation

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and all that kind of stuff, bird hazards,

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so there you're dealing with wolves

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and bears and deer obviously.

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Here, it's a little bit different.

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We have larger birds, we have stray dogs,

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you have other pets, iguanas that come out

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onto the airfield, you'll have the occasional horse,

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that are the local pets here.

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So we go out and try to make sure the airfield's safe,

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we try to shoo them off and get them outside of the runway,

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so that aircraft can land and take off without incident.

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Well, this is the other side of being in the National Guard.

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You talk about coming from a fighter base,

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it's all about the aviation package,

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and deploying for contingencies

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in Iraq and Afghanistan, all that kind of stuff.

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This is the other side of the issue,

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where you're dealing with domestic issues

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and domestic operations dom ops,

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so here, we're doing exactly what

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the National Guard is supposed to do,

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help and aid relief for domestic or homeland issues.

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So we're here doing the mission

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that we're supposed to be doing.

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I think the most impactful thing is

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I've had a chance to go out into the local community

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a couple times, and you can see some of the devastation

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in here from the hurricane, from both Irma and Maria.

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So, there may be areas that look like

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they have been untouched, but there's a lot of other areas,

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poor communities that have been just totally devastated.

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Roofs ripped off, no running water, no electricity,

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some of the guys I work with here in San Juan

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through the Air Guard base here live in a community

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and they haven't had power at their homes in 67 days,

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and they're having to deal with that.

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So, us coming down here, helping out any way we can,

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giving them some relief so that they can go ahead

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and take care of their families

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trying to recover from the hurricane as well,

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in addition to doing their normal job

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here at the base is a huge thing.

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So that's one of the things I'm really kind of proud about.

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Well, I think the biggest thing for that is that

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all the local members of the Puerto Rican Air National Guard

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here don't live all in the local community.

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They live out in the mountains,

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and they live in the rural areas as well.

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So obviously, with all the electrical problems,

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lack of electricity in the homes,

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lack of running water, all that kind of stuff,

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you have a communication problem.

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So, cell signals, cell towers are really bad here,

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sometimes you'll get a text and no phone call,

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sometimes the phone call will go through and no text,

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so trying to communicate to your workers

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coming in or if there's an accident

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or something like that is very hard.

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So having local augmen, or augmentees from

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around the states come out and help out

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the Air Guard base to complete their mission,

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obviously, which is trying to get support

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to the local communities, is huge,

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because now you're not, you're trying to relieve

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some of that stress and anxiety that those members have

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who don't live in the local area going to and from work,

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and for the whole Guard base itself.

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They wanna be here to do the mission as well,

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so we're here, trying to make it easier for them.

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Well, it's a different environment,

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because here, when we deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan,

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you usually have base, you're restricted,

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everybody knows where everybody's working,

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everybody lives, all that kind of stuff.

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Everybody gets together to have morale,

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all those things, so communication

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in those environments is different.

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Here, without having good communications,

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cell towers, and working phones, and what not,

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you don't have that luxury.

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You don't know that you can't get ahold of somebody.

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So, me being as a supervisor,

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or anybody else in that situation,

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you wanna be able to, you have to be able to depend

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on your fellow workers to come in and be at work

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and do what needs to be done to get the mission, right?

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So here, it's 10 times harder to try to ensure that happens,

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so even bringing the augmentees in from other bases

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in the States to come and help out,

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at least we're all living in the local area.

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We're not that far from here,

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so that gives some relief to the

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local population, the local members going back home.

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They can go ahead and try to take care

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of the things that they need to do.

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Try to get power restored, get a generator up and running,

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or take it down to get it maintained,

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because people been running on generators

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for almost two months straight with no power.

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So there's a lot of things that we're providing,

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not just for local community or for FEMA

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or the Cat five organization that is here

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for disaster relief as well.

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We're here to provide some comfort and support

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to our fellow Air National Guard members.

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Any deployment is not really that sexy (laughs),

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for lack of a better word, so

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it's all about doing what we're trained to do.

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Whether it's here, whether it's going to a deployment

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out to Nellis, or doing a red flag exercise

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or going to Alaska or going to Iraq or Afghanistan,

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it doesn't matter where you go.

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It's just coming here and doing

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what needs to be done to get the mission done.

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I guess the biggest thing would be

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I encourage anybody, if you have the opportunity

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to come out and help out your fellow airmen and soldiers,

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take that opportunity to do that,

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because don't take things for granted,

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because it may seem simple back home,

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but when you're in a situation in this environment,

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it's totally different, and you get a lot

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out of helping out other people.

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Yeah, like I said earlier, I got a chance to go out

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into the local community, out to the rural areas.

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Our mission at the airport in Ponce

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we took some time and pitched in money

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and bought supplies from the local Wal-Marts

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and all that stuff to go help out

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a Catholic church on our off time when we had off time.

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So we'd go out there, bring the supplies, bring out

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school supplies, because the church was also a local school.

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You know, they're devastated.

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The roof is torn off their house,

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we were trying to trying to procure tarps

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and all that kind of stuff so at least

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they'd keep the rain out, because even though

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the weather's supposed to be a lot drier here,

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this season is particular has been pretty rainy.

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So they've experienced quite a bit of rainfall here.

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So that on top of everything else

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and the recovery from the hurricane,

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is making it that much harder

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to sustain it, to move forward.

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So I think it's a valid, I don't know how you'd say it,

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but I think all the efforts are going to a good cause.

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There are definitely a lot of people here on this island

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that are benefiting from what we're doing here,

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which is really is what the whole thing is all about.

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So anything that people can do

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supporting the hurricane relief,

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whether it's donating, whether it's coming out

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and lending a hand, volunteering.

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I've known people back in Duluth

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that volunteered with the Red Cross

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and came out on a humanitarian mission on their own,

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took time away from work and could volunteer to come out

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to the areas here or St Thomas or St Martin,

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all the Virgin Islands, all these islands out here.

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So, in