A Different Kind of Mission

Parked in a field in Canita, Panama

It can be forgiven if the image that first comes to mind at the words "military mission" involve weapons, body armor, and troops moving to contact.  After all, for the last decade we've been involved in shooting wars in several countries.  There is another kind of mission that has been getting less press, but is important none the less, that being the humanitarian mission.  The National Guard unit I belong to along with other Guard, Reserve and active duty Army and Air Force have spent the last several months in Panama providing medical aid and engineering support in the form of building schools and clinics for the Panamanian people as a part of Operation Beyond the Horizon. Being a Blackhawk unit our support has been peripheral to main mission, consisting of standing by in case a medical emergency required evacuation to one of the hospitals available.  We also moved medical supplies and people around the country side and did a little training along the way.

More after the break...

Cook Out

Cookin'

To close out our rotation at Panama, we had a unit cook out at the flight line.  Here out commanding officer fries up some fresh alligator.  Also on the menu were fresh caught lobster and hot dogs for the sea food adverse.

Memorial Day 2013

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Don Layman
Johnny Cardenas
Darrel Kasson

Charles Browning

Richard Peris

Julie Ryan

Carroll LeFon
Timothy Simpson

Sling Loads

Sling loading a HMMWV

As a break for everyone and a treat for the engineers our unit takes a day to introduce the combat engineers to rigging and hooking up sling loads to the Blackhawk.  We start them with a cargo net, move up to a water tank and finish up with a HMMWV.  In the afternoon we take them on what's called an Incentive Flight, which is nothing more than a short ride designed to give them a couple thrills and an different view of the environment they've been working in.  It makes for a long day, but it is a lot of fun.

Hooking up the load

And now for a different kind of mission...

One of the coastal artillery batteries that once protected the Panama Canal

My last couple of deployments have been in support of the breaking things part of the military.  From March through July members of my unit have been rotating down to Panama to support Army and Air Force construction engineers and medical groups as they built and improve infrastructure in some of the more remote parts of the country.  Our primary mission here is CASEVAC, meaning moving injured people from where they got hurt to the best hospital for their type of injury.  The drive from Panama City to the old Ft Sherman on the Atlantic (north) side of the canal took nearly three hours with no traffic.  During the busy part of the day traffic just plain stops.  By comparison, it takes us 18 minutes to fly it.

The Monitor

Monitor mock up deck, stern looking forward

I'm still out here in Newport News, so last weekend I went to the Mariners' Museum where, among other things, the recovered parts of the Monitor are on display.  Here are a few pictures I snapped along the way...

More below the fold...