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The 82nd Airborne Does It All In Haiti

By R.Gregg, The Raleigh Telegram

Thursday, February 4, 2010

PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI - Amid the crumbled concrete and dusty ruins of the capital city of Port au Prince after the massive earthquake, Haiti is returning to some signs of normalcy as brightly colored taxis crowd the streets and vendors sell food cooked in makeshift tents on the streets.

However, with the Haitian people trying to recover and restore basic services, the US Army’s 82nd Airborne is still doing a great deal of work in the country to help recovery efforts on all fronts.

During the end of January this reporter spent a week embedded with several units of the Airborne and saw firsthand the hard work being done by the men and women of the 82nd Airborne and US military.

In only a few days, we were able to see firsthand what the Airborne was doing on a massive scale.

Airborne troops delivered food and water to thousands of Haitian civilians, provided medical treatments, helped construct of water facilities, provided security services to civilian volunteers, patrolled the streets, coordinated with doctors and other groups, dropped off medical supplies, repaired generators, kept armed gangs from taking food, and in general, delivered a wide range of support for the Haitian people that would not have existed otherwise.

As one person described it to this reporter, the Haitian government presence on the streets was “nonexistent.” Although Haitian officials may not like to admit it, it was evident to this reporter that if the US Army Airborne units had not responded to Haiti then it is likely that tens of thousands more Haitian civilians would have perished in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Water, Food, And Fuel

After arriving at the airport on a US Air Force C-130 from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the scale of the relief efforts became apparent at the beginning of the trip.

Airplane after airplane -- including planes from around the world and the US military -- were flying in around the clock bringing in precious food and water to the city. When embedded with the 407th Brigade Support Battalion, we were especially aware of the flights, as our camp was quite literally next to the runway and we got to sleep with the sounds of jet planes landing at night above our heads.

From sunrise to sunset, SeaHawk helicopters from the US Navy’s USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier were also running resupply missions from the airport to supply points across Haiti.

The flights of helicopters provided soldiers at the airport a welcome breeze during the hot daytime hours, but the accompanying dust storms over our camp were the price to be paid for the blast of air.

When I first arrived, military officials told me that diesel and gasoline were also in short supply although some fuel was being brought in on large bladders on palettes. A short time after my arrival, Army personnel said they were very happy to see fuel trucks arriving from the Dominican Republic.

“You just don’t understand,” said one Army officer, hearing the news that the trucks had arrived. “We’re so happy to see this.”

The US Army had contracted with a firm in the adjacent Dominican Republic to bring in the much needed resource, as the Army was using several thousand gallons a day to deliver food and water around the country to the Haitian people.

Rows and rows of palettes containing bottled water were shuttled from incoming airplanes onto awaiting helicopters or trucks going into town.

Navy personnel formed a human chain to put the boxes of MRE’s (Meals: Ready To Eat) from the USAID and other agencies onto the helicopters from the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier to deliver items to far flung landing fields across the country.

Right next to the runways, the Airborne supply units, including the 407th Brigade Support Battalion, were loading up trucks to deliver food and water to advance operation bases in and around the city of Port au Prince.

The 407th BSB has around 100 large trucks on the ground along with accompanying Humvees to take food from the airport as it arrived to the other Airborne bases around the city, in order to give out the aid directly to the Haitian people.

Riding along with the 407th, we delivered food to soldiers on the ground to give out to the Haitian people, delivered medical supplies to the US Embassy where they were setting up an outdoor field hospital, and also supplied US troops with rations and water in the field.

A City Struck With Poverty

As we left the secure area of the airport and passed through the snarled United Nations checkpoint before we entered the street, it became apparent that the situation in Haiti was both better and worse than what was seen on the news back in the United States.

When watching television reports from CNN and other media outlets, you began to believe that the entire city was flattened from the earthquake on January 12th -- that is not the case. The destruction is somewhat sporadic as you see a building that has completely collapsed next to a building that seemed to be fine.

Some entire neighborhoods seem to be totally demolished while other parts of town seemed to be much better off and seemed to have survived the disaster much more intact.

As we flew over parts of Haiti in a helicopter, you could see many parts of the city that seemed to be normal from the air, while whole areas of homes in the countryside were in a shambles, where walls crumbled to the ground.

In many ways, it’s like viewing the aftermath of the tornado -- the destruction is almost random and you can’t really fathom how one house survived while the house next to it is completely demolished.

Still, the resulting disaster from the quake is on a Biblical scale with some estimates at over 200,000 people dead. Only a reconstruction effort on an international scale will be able to help rebuild the country.

What was worse than expected? For this reporter, it is hard to describe the amount of poverty in the country of Haiti. The difference in quality of life between the United States and this country where most people live on only a couple of dollars a day is one that most Americans do not appreciate. Although it is only a three hour flight between the US and Haiti, but the two countries are worlds apart.

Many of the problems certainly existed before the earthquake and they will likely exist long after the Haitian earthquake disappears from the headlines.

Tough But Familiar Conditions

Although hundreds of thousands of people are now homeless as a result of the quake, there seemed to be a lack of general infrastructure here on the ground before the disaster even struck.

According to people here, some of the tent camps existed long before the earthquake struck. It’s hard to tell who was displaced by the earthquake and who was bad off before the disaster.

One Army officer said that the camps that had been there a long time usually had more durable structures using metal and wood compared with the recent tent cities that sprung up after the quake that used tarps, tents, and bedsheets as cover from the elements.

Soldiers that I spoke with said that they had experienced many of sights, smells, and sounds before and that they were used to dealing with these type of conditions here.

Veterans who had been on several tours overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan remarked at how similar Haiti seemed to be to those nations, with vendors hawking food right on the sidewalks, dusty streets, hot sun, and piles of trash a familiar sight to them.

As there seems to be no sewer or water system in much of the country and no trash collection, as we walked or drove throughout the city, there is a concern about sanitary conditions for both the US Army soldiers and the Haitian civilians.

Although some neighborhoods are worse than others, walking through the streets involves stepping through areas where raw sewage is dumped and working your way across mounds of trash. Dysentery and typhoid fever are a major concern for those who survived the earthquake as the rainy season approaches in the spring.

In one area where a small river flowed, tons of trash were visible as far as the eye could see and giant black pigs were picking through the refuse, looking for a meal.

After dark, there are some other health hazards you have to deal with. The mosquitoes are out and even with nets and bug spray, they can eat you alive, leaving red blotches on your face and hands. Soldiers are taking malaria pills, as the mosquitoes are carriers of the disease.

Also at night, the people in Haiti burn their trash and driving along the dark city streets, one sees plumes of smoke rising and smoldering fires in the corners of the alleyways. With all of the dust and smoke everywhere, it’s hard not to get it in your lungs. Someone asked me how long I had a cough and I simply told them “since I arrived in Haiti.”

People Are Friendly

Despite the problems and the recent disaster, the people in Haiti are friendly and from my experiences, are very glad that the American soldiers from the 82nd Airborne are there.

There is a language barrier, as the Haitians speak Creole French but while not many of the soldiers can converse directly with them, they manage to do so through some French phrases and hand gestures.

Although many people of the people crowding around Army vehicles or at stops asking for food, many people wave and shout things to us as we pass by in Humvees or on foot. On many occasions, people made it a point to come up to us and shake hands or welcome us to the country. Little kids seem especially enthralled with the soldiers here and they give up a thumbs up sign or smile widely.

For the most part, there was no chaos, riots, or bedlam seen firsthand during the week I was there.

A very religious people, we heard singing on the streets during outdoor church services that were lit by a single light bulb but which drew a couple of thousand people as they gathered together in the dark.

The Haitians were very calm despite the recent disaster and one wonders if American citizens would be so polite and friendly given similar circumstances.

As if to answer the question, when I returned to North Carolina after my trip, the threat of snow turned the local Harris Teeter supermarket parking lot in Raleigh into turmoil as people parked on the curbs and medians, trying to grab milk and bread before the storm hit.

Hard Work Paying Off

The 82nd Airborne is not here as an occupying force and it was made clear that they are not here to replace the Haitian police force or to enforce the law, which has been left to the small Haitian police force in town.

However, the fact that the 82nd Airborne soldiers are an armed force and that they are given a lot of respect by the population has turned them into the de facto authority in the city of Port au Prince.

In many instances, the Haitian populace have no one else they can turn to and the Americans are seen as people who can get things done.

At the Alpha operating base set up by the 2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, the soldiers are playing multiple roles.

During day and night patrols, it is evident that they are trying to perform many functions in their sector. Over the course of several days, they met with different civilian aid groups from the US, Ireland, Israel, and Turkey as well as local leaders to coordinate food and water deliveries to different tent camps.

Captain Jason Alexander said they were actively trying to find the smaller camps that had not received a lot of attention from aid agencies like the larger camps but had food needs just the same.

As detailed in a separate article, as soon as they received supplies from the airport, the 2nd of the 319th handed out the food and water to the people. Over the days I was there, they gave out thousands of food packets and thousands of bottles water as quickly as they got them not only to civilians in the camps but to places such as hospitals that were short on supplies.

The Airborne soldiers talked with doctors they met on the streets who were from New York City and worked with them to provide medical care at different locations in their sector.

During one food drop off at night time, in a very touching moment, an Airborne medic probably saved a baby’s life by administering first aid to his infected foot while explaining to the mother how to change the bandage after a couple of days.

They also made sure that a local orphanage where dozens of babies were suffering from dysentery had IV’s administered and they were working to repair their old generator when I left.

After visiting a local hospital, they visited to one of the few pharmacies in the area to line up medical supplies. Some long term goals are also being planned as one soldier talks about organizing a street clean up and while I was there they arranged for a bulldozer to clear a wide swath of trash from a local street.

Airborne soldiers were also busy trying to provide security for others handing out food. As an example, when a civilian truck almost overturned while delivering a sacks of food, Airborne soldiers were there to help reload the vehicle and get it back on its way.

When there were reports of a riot near a United Nations food warehouse, the Airborne was there within minutes. Although the report later turned out to be false, the soldiers are playing an important role in not only getting food to the Haitian people themselves, but helping others to do the same.

As representatives of the American people in Haiti helping to provide food, water, and rebuilding efforts, the 82nd Airborne from Fort Bragg are an indispensable component of the Haitian aid effort. Further, their presence and hard work is also allowing the entire recovery project to move forward effectively.

The 82nd Airborne is doing it all in Haiti. Without their hard work, the Haitian relief effort would simply not be possible.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This article offers an overview of what we saw in Haiti. To read the 20 other articles that go into more detail along with photos and video, click here for the main Haiti index page.