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On a mission: 72nd LRS helps ship humanitarian aid to Haiti

  • Published
  • By John Parker
  • Staff Writer
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  The 72nd Logistics Readiness Squadron played a big part recently in sending 270,864 meals to Haiti on the fifth anniversary month of the island's 2010 earthquake.

Last week about 15 air terminal personnel secured the cargo on pallets in Bldg. 260 for airlift on a C-17 Globemaster III from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

The transport plane arrived Jan. 16 for loading at Tinker. The aircraft then headed for a stop in Key West, Fla., before flying to Haiti, said Steven Max, chief of Air Terminal Operations and Passenger Movement for the 72nd LRS.

Tech. Sgt. Matthew Armstrong, 72nd LRS interim superintendent, said the cargo, roughly equivalent to a tractor-trailer load, was a break from their usual missions supporting warfighters.

"Every mission's important to us, but it does feel better to know we're helping in a relief effort like that," Sergeant Armstrong said.

The humanitarian food comes from Cherokee, a town of about 1,500 people in northwest Oklahoma. Monte Stewart is director of a satellite-operation there of the national nonprofit Kids Against Hunger, based in Omaha, Neb.

The group provides a scientifically designed, highly nutritious and vitamin-fortified soy and rice mixture for shipment to impoverished locations in Africa, the Philippines and other spots around the globe.

Volunteers in Cherokee packed the ingredients into roughly quart-sized bags that hold six meals made with boiled water. Mr. Stewart said the organization shipped approximately a million meals to Haiti last year.

The Air Force transport is part of a program allowing U.S.-based non-governmental sources to carry humanitarian aid at little or no cost. The U.S. Agency for International Development, State Department and Defense Department administer the program.
Mr. Stewart said he last visited Haiti in April and October last year. The food will go to children at Respire Haiti Christian School, many of them orphans, and the nonprofit Children's Lifeline there.

"There are pockets that are recovering quite well, then there are a lot of people still in a world of hurt," Mr. Stewart said. "There are still tent cities and things like that, too.

"I've been down there several times seeing the great need and how much it will change their lives," Mr. Stewart added. "As long as they can get an education they have a chance in life, and by us helping supply them with meals."

The timing of the shipment on the anniversary month of the Jan. 10, 2010, earthquake was coincidental, he said.