Once Strzelczyk and his team assessed the situation, they contacted the 68-person command-and-control element of the task forces located at Ellington Field, near Houston. The control element coordinated the ground and air evacuation of all the caretakers and their patients.
The most critically ill were aeromedically evacuated to hospitals, while the balance were moved to a nursing home via ground transportation. Within seven hours, the last patient was moved to safety.
"It was a heartwarming mission," Strzelczyk said. "We finally got them out last night."
As of Sept. 24, the Texas Army and Air National Guard had flown hundreds of missions and assisted with the rescue of 3,350 people in Beaumont, Houston and Galveston.
"These people do what they have to do," Strzelczyk said about his fellow guardsmen. "We were tickled to death to get them out."
Spurgin said Texas forces will be on duty as long as needed. "They feel very good about it," he said. "Our soldiers and airmen get a real sense of satisfaction helping others."
Hurricane Rita mobilizations in the Texas National Guard began Sept. 20 as the storm churned in the Gulf of Mexico. "We're trying to do whatever good we can, wherever we can," Texas Army National Guard Sgt. Eddie Basham said. "Whatever our command deems necessary. If we go into an area that needs help, we'll do 'tailgate medicine,'" he said.
Basham is with the 149th Air Ambulance Company, from San Antonio, part of a small medical contingent of doctors, physician assistants, nurses and medics. The unit's main mission is to provide medical care for task force soldiers, but they will adjust their mission to care for civilian casualties if needed.
Guard officials could not estimate how many tons of relief supplies had been shipped out, but military forces along the Texas-Louisiana state line were proactively providing aid, they said.
"Just a few weeks ago my family gave money to help Katrina victims; now we're the ones who need help," a resident said.
