459 ARW prepared for major storm

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Steve Lewis
  • 459th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. --  Before category 1 Hurricane Irene began to threaten the National Capital Region Saturday, the 459th Air Refueling Wing took every precaution to protect its personnel, aircraft and facilities from the major storm Aug. 26, here.

As maintenance and aircrews prepared the wing's KC-135 Stratotankers for flight, key personnel met to review and finalize ways to prepare the wing for an emergency situation.

"We gathered individuals from the operations, maintenance and support groups to plan for the worst case scenario," Col. Matthew Burger, 459th Operations Group commander said. "In a very short period of time the wing was able to build a detailed hurricane evacuation plan."

The evacuation plan was built on recommendations from many sources, including information provided by the wing's emergency management program manager, Staff Sgt. Evans Francis. Sergeant Francis filtered numerous natural disaster and hurricane checklists through the wing's chain of command as well as provided recommendations to the Joint Base Andrews commander on ways to protect Airmen.

Safety precautions from Sergeant Francis' checklists included sandbagging flood-prone facilities, moving vehicles and equipment inside hangars and removing potentially dangerous projectiles off the flightline.

"I feel that the wing took my recommendations into consideration and put them into action to prepare our facilities, aircraft and personnel for the hurricane," the emergency management program manger said.

A final step the 459th ARW took to protect its assets from the approaching storm was moving all of its aircraft on the flightline to an Air Force base outside of Irene's destructive path. There the KC-135s will remain until the storm has passed and it is safe to return them here.

"We should be proud of what the facility managers and support group did to get our people and buildings ready for such a big storm," Colonel Burger said. "The key here is that we've planned for the worst and hope for the best.