CAMP ROBINSON, AR — The mood is downright playful as the men settle into their bunks. After nine hours of travel, the soldiers of the 294th Engineer Company of the 203rd Battalion are laughing and joking and looking forward to tomorrow’s mission.
We’re at Camp Robinson, near Little Rock, Arkansas. Tomorrow we’ll be heading to our staging area in Louisiana, awaiting orders about where this group of engineers and heavy machine operators will be sent to help in the clean up after Hurricane Gustav.
For many of these guys from southwest Missouri, this is just the latest of many emergency deployments. Some were in the St. Louis area recently building levees to defend from the flooding Mississippi River. Some helped clear debris last winter following the devastating ice storms. And for some, this is their second time heading to New Orleans after a devastating hurricane.
Look for interviews, photos, and videos tomorrow. Tonight we play cards, tell dirty jokes, and dry off.
I’ll be heading to New Orleans tomorrow, embedded with the Missouri National Guard troops being sent to the Gulf Coast to aid in the effort.
There are already 600 Missouri National Guardsmen and Women on the ground in Louisiana today to assist with the response and Gov. Matt Blunt has directed an additional 700 Citizen-Soldiers to the area boosting Missouri’s Guard presence to about 1,300.
“We also have shelters available in Missouri for any Gustav evacuees if needed,” said Blunt today. “I have spoken with Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana to offer Missouri’s support and to discuss Missouri’s Guard presence, and I have directed the Department of Public Safety to keep me updated of any future needs that our state may be able to meet in the response.”
In addition to stories and videos published here in the following day, I will also be freelancing. Editors wanting stories, videos or photos can contact me by email or cell (314-779-9958).
Last month, the anti-war women group CODEPINK St.Louis drove through the night to New Orleans for V-Day, the 10th anniversary of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues”, and to share in the struggle and celebration of 1,200 women who returned to New Orleans after being previously displace by Hurricane Katrina.
