Missouri Guard aviation unit tackles National Guard dual mission

By: Ann Keyes
Missouri National Guard Public Affairs





SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Less than 48 hours after learning of the need, Missouri National Guard Soldiers were on the ground in Louisiana lending hands and expertise to the state being hard-hit by the BP oil spill.

"We're happy to go," said Sgt. Maj. Terry Hampton, of Willard, before boarding a UH-60 Black Hawk ferrying the first crew to the Gulf shore state.

Hampton, the shop foreman at the Missouri National Guard's Aviation Classification Repair Activity Depot in Springfield, has a two-part mission: first, to offer support to the depot's counterpart in Mississippi - that region's AVCRAD - and second, as the sergeant major for the 1107th Theater Aviation Sustainment Maintenance Group, to lay the groundwork for other members of the 1107th who'll follow.

"We'll need about 15 people from the unit - 10 for maintenance of rotary-wing aircraft and five Black Hawk pilots or crew members," said Hampton of preliminary estimates.

Earlier this week, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon mobilized Missouri National Guard Soldiers to help with response efforts to the Gulf oil spill, activated under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, which is the cornerstone of response to major disasters.

In 2009, the compact took Missouri Guardsmen to North Dakota to aid with Red River flooding, and more recently, to Haiti for earthquake relief efforts. The Louisiana call-up marks at least the fourth trip to that area for Missouri Citizen-Soldiers, who offered aid and assistance in response to hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Gustav.

But stateside duty - at the bequest of the Governor - is only half of the National Guard mission. During wartime, Guardsmen also serve at the request of the Commander and Chief of the United States. The 1107th is serving that mission as well.

Stationed primarily in Kuwait, and with other missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, some 150 Soldiers with the unit are currently deployed. Commanded by Col. William Thomas, of Rogersville, the Soldiers stationed overseas are performing beyond expectation

"They are doing exceptionally well," said Maj. David Crocker, the unit's rear commander. "They are maintaining operational tempo and their moral continues to remain high."

As conflicts in southwest Asia continue, Guardsmen are doing double-duty, serving both the federal and state missions simultaneously when called upon.

Chief Warrant Officer Dan Milberg returned last year from deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and he now serves the Louisiana mission.

"I think we are going to be doing a lot of equipment and asset movement operations in Louisiana," Milberg said, noting the crew will face heat and humidity and the high density of aircraft traffic in an unfamiliar area.

Milberg, a member of the 1107th from Robertsville, joins four other Missouri Guardsmen on the Louisiana mission. Two come from Company C of the 1-106th Assault Helicopter Battalion at Fort Leonard Wood, while Capt. Nicholas Pianalto joins the group from the 35th Combat Aviation Brigade in Sedalia.

"The UH-60 has the capability to transport external loads," Milberg said. "So as they fill the sand bags or containers with whatever substance are used to soak up the oil, we can move those for them into position more easily than they can load them on a truck and drive them where they need to go."

Crocker, working from the Guard armory in Springfield, said keeping track of Soldiers serving in Louisiana and southwest Asia is not unmanageable.

"Our rear element is maintaining support for the state emergency duty in Louisiana," Crocker said. "We'll continue with that mission as long as the call-up remains."

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Posted: 5/28/2010 9:57:07 AM