More than 150 Indiana Army and Air National Guardsmen were heartened as well as humbled by their reception in southwestern part of their state Nov. 6.
That was the day the Hoosier State's worst tornado in 30 years touched down near Evansville, Ind., early on a Sunday morning. Its 200-plus mph winds cut a devastating swath for more than 20 miles, killing 23 people, obliterating houses and ripping up trees.
Most of the Guardsmen were already on duty for weekend drills. They put their scheduled training on hold to help with the initial recovery, lending a hand for a few days with security, search and rescue, and debris clearing.
The death and destruction encountered-especially at an Evansville mobile home park where 19 people died-stunned even most battle-hardened among the group.
"This is worse in scale to some of what we saw in Iraq," said Sgt. Matthew Brown, a member of the 1st Battalion, 163rd Field Artillery, which provided about 50 personnel to the effort.
"This is bad ... it looks like someone dropped a bomb on these people,"added another member of the Evansville-based battalion, Spc. Karl Davis.
"We had to patrol the pond behind the [mobile home] park for possible body recovery," he said. "As we were walking along the shore, a body of a man floated to the surface and we had to recover it. He was part of a family of three that all died together. It was pretty emotional."
No less shocking was the response of the survivors to the Guard's arrival.
"First day, [we] get off the bus, 10 minutes later we're in the woods searching for survivors and we're getting applause from the local public standing on the edge of the road watching us," Sergeant Brown said.
"Ninety percent of everybody will just stop and thank us, even if we haven't directly helped them out," said Pfc. Ross Pierson, of 1st Battalion, 152nd Infantry, which is based in Jasper, Ind., and supplied about 80 personnel.
"They really appreciate us [the Guard] being here," he added. "You know you're doing your job then and that's what we're here for."
The 181st Fighter Wing from Terre Haute, Ind., and the state's joint force headquarters also assisted with the response.
The Indiana Guard is becoming wellpracticed in disaster response. Following Hurricane Katrina, more than 2,400 Indiana Guardsmen deployed to the Gulf Coast to provide medical, transportation, logistics and aviation support, said Capt. Lisa Kopczynski, the state's public aflairs officer.
Last month, the Indiana Guard also had more than 1,500 personnel deployed overseas, including the 113th Engineer Battalion, die 938th and 939th Military Police detachments and A Company, 138th Signal Battalion, all deployed to Iraq.
"This is what the Guard is all about," she said. "The Indiana National Guard is all about helping the citizens of our state and nation. They're your hometown citizens-your doctors, your lawyers, your teacherswho will drop everything when needed to protect their fellow citizens and defend their nation in its time of need."
© 2005 National Guard Association of the United States Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Source: National Guard
