JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO, Texas –
In support of Hurricane Harvey relief efforts, the 502nd Air Base Wing, Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Defense Logistics Agency stood-up an Incident Support Base at JBSA-Seguin Auxiliary Airfield Aug. 24.
“The mission of the ISB is to stage supplies such as: meals, water, generators, and other equipment as close as possible to the affected area without hindering disaster relief operations,” Col. Dave Edwards, 1st Air Force emergency preparedness liaison officer, said.
Edwards explained that the JBSA-Seguin Auxiliary Airfield location can stage approximately 700 trailer trucks at a time and they are currently processing about 250 trucks through the location per day. To date, approximately 2.1 million meals and 2.2 million liters of water have processed through the ISB to disaster relief areas.
“This is the most massive homeland support operation I have ever been involved with and we are working to move as many supplies as we can as quickly as possible because time is of the essence,” Edwards said.
Edwards and Lt. Col. Vince Schons are the two EPLOs assigned to the incident support base and coordinate with JBSA, other federal agencies, state and local agencies to ensure FEMA and DLA have all the resources they need to accomplish their disaster relief missions.
“What we really want is to get the aid to the people that need it as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Schons said. “Nobody wants bad things to happen, but we are trained and ready to respond when they do and we want to help.”
Both Edwards and Schons are Air Force reservists and expressed their willingness and readiness to serve during this time of disaster.
“To the people of Houston and all the affected areas, my thoughts and prayers are with you,” Edwards said. “Joint Base San Antonio stands ready to support in anyway necessary to help and will provide every resource we can to alleviate the suffering and put things back together for you.”
Schons echoed the sentiment of readiness.
“The effort and the can-do attitude from the entire community is a wonderful thing to see and be a part of,” Schons said. “It fills me with pride to see the American people coming together and the outpouring of support during this time of crisis.”
During normal operations, Seguin Auxiliary Airfield is owned and operated by JBSA and serves as a flying training location for pilots from the 12th Flying Training Wing, located at JBSA-Randolph.