What Is Slow?

[Annie]

http://www.radioblogger.com/#000974

Friday, September 9

Major General William Caldwell, commander of the 82nd Airborne, from Louisiana.

Former Bush 41 Assistant Secretary of Defense Jed Babbin filled in for Hugh today, and he interviewed somebody that's making a difference on the ground in the Gulf Coast right now. You want to know about response time from the federal government? Read this:

JB: Joining us right now, I'm very privileged to introduce to you Major General William Caldwell, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. Airborne all the way. General, thanks for joining us.

WC: Well, thank you for having us. We're glad to be here.

JB: Well, I know you're a very busy guy, and I don't want to take too much of your time, sir. Tell us where are you? Where are your guys? What are they doing?

WC: Well, we're down here in New Orleans. And the 82nd Airborne Division moved in and is operating in what they call the Orleans Parish, which is New Orleans proper. And we're here to rescue and provide safety to the New Orleans citizens, to help evacuate them if they want to be evacuated, and then to provide humanitarian assistance to those who want to remain still in this location.

JB: Now how many guys do you have? Do you have the whole Division down there, sir?

WC: I didn't bring the whole Division. About half of my Division right now is in either Iraq or Afghanistan. And then we brought just about the other half down here with us. I should say a third. We have about 5,000 paratroopers today, currently on the ground down here in New Orleans.

JB: Now you're all-American division is doing things that I guess you just couldn't call on a lot of other people to do. You're doing high risk, water borne search and recovery. Tell us about that.

WC: Well, if you talk to the young paratroopers, they're calling themselves the amphibian all-American division. We only have four boats in our division. And today, we now have 87 boats. We've teamed up with the urban search and rescue folks from FEMA, and between us, we jointly have about 400 boats we're putting out every day, into the areas that are currently flooded, searching each and every home, knocking on them to make sure there's still nobody in them that wants to be rescued.

JB: Now that's a pretty high risk operation for your guys. They're being exposed to, you know, Lord only knows what's in that water and so forth. What are you doing to protect the troops while they're on the water?

WC: The key thing that we're going on that is we've gone ahead and bought waders. So our paratroopers are out there wearing, you know, the hip-waist waders, so that when they do have to get out and move to a building, or help a person get into the boat, they at least have it to that point. And then of course, once they get back, we're going through a pretty good decontamination of them, because it's pretty toxic up here in the water, which has been sitting now for a good ten days.

JB: Now, how many people are actually leaving these days from New Orleans? Are people cooperating with your guys? Are they meeting resistance? Are they being told go on, get away, we don't want you?

WC: I'll tell you. The people have been great. When we came in here last Saturday, we got an alert last Saturday morning about ten o'clock. And by four pm in the afternoon, we had taken off and headed down to New Orleans, and have been working since. And out of the New Orleans area, we've evacuated right at about 4,000 people now, since Saturday evening when we started the evacuation process, or picked it up and took over at that point. And we've rescued about another 500 of them.

JB: Wow. And let me stop you right there, sir. And please...let's just go back and wind that clock for me just a little bit. When did you guys get the go order? And how fast did you get ther?

WC: We got the go order at 10:05 on Saturday morning, and by 4:00 in the afternoon, six hours later, I was getting on the first airplane with our lead command and control elements, and we took off fifteen minutes later.

JB: General, I know you guys are pretty fast movers, but that's got to be some kind of record, even for you guys.

WC: Well, you know, the day before, we did a complete rehearsal within the division, in anticipation that we might really be called at some point. So we had literally worked up our own internal division scenario, and alerted the entire division, and ran through a drill for deployment, so the next day when it came, it was...we do it routinely in 18 hours. But to do it in six hours takes a little more work. But we had just practiced it just the day before.

JB: Six hours. General, I'm an old Air Force puke, and we take an awful lot of pride in getting things going real fast, and getting to places real fast. I don't think anybody can keep up with you guys.

WC: I'll tell you what. These men and women, these paratroopers are great. Their bags...we rotated through our division, maintaining this readiness posture. And when you pick it up, you keep your bags literally packed, prepared to go, so that when the call comes, you have two hours to get into the office, your bags are packed. You've just got to draw your weapon and start moving down towards the airfield.

JB: Doggone. All right. Let's just talk about how your troops are reacting. How's your morale down there? What are the guys saying? What's the feedback you're getting from your troopers?

WC: I've got to tell you. It's amazing. 60% of the troopers that are deployed down here have served in either Afghanistan or Iraq. They're all combat veterans, just about. And they are so excited and honored to have this opportunity to serve down here, helping Americans. You know, it's the all-American division helping Americans. We don't get to do this often, so that when we have that kind of opportunity, it's a real privilege and an honor for us to do that.

JB: Well, you guys are really doing America proud, as are all the folks right down there on the ground right now. General, let me just put one thing in context. Help us out here. I'm trying to explain to our audience how command, control, communications and intelligence work in a disaster relief. Can you give us the short, short, short version of that?

WC: I sure can. We've got a commander that's in charge of all of Louisiana and Mississippi, Lt. General Russ Honore. He works all the military pieces. And then as we work down the line, right underneath him, you've got me as the senior active duty general officer in the state of Louisiana. And then we all tie into the National Guard and all the federal agencies. FEMA is our key tie-in point, especially with what we're doing now with the urban search and rescue teams from FEMA that have come here from across the United States of America. It's truly a team effort. Every agency, every organization, every relief group, every volunteer, we all pull together and team up and make this thing happen. Not one of us alone could do it.

JB: Well, God bless, General. All I can say is you guys are making America proud, yet again. That's nothing unusual for the 82nd Airborne. And you know, sir, the next time you get up in Washington, D.C., give me a call. I'd like to buy you a steak and a whiskey. And please, please remember every one of our listeners to your troopers. We are so proud of you guys, and thank you again for taking the time to join us today.

End of interview.

Slow response, huh?