Grissom Air Reserve Base, Ind. -- While most people in the area were hunkered down seeking shelter from a series of tornadoes August 24, one Grissom member was hunkered down plotting, coordinating and assisting even as the devastation was twirling around Howard County.
Dan DeAngulo, 434th Air Refueling Wing base emergency manager, was asked to support the Howard County emergency management agency as storm threats grew in the area. He left Grissom to go to Kokomo to lend his expertise during the building crisis.
“At one point we had three tornadoes on the ground,” DeAngulo said. “Power was out around town and the radios weren’t working due to a lightning strike.”
Adapting and overcoming has long been a military moto, and that mentality was put into action in Kokomo as emergency planners teamed together and used HAM radios to communicate storm, damage, and emergency information throughout the City of Firsts.
“I worked with a the Howard County deputy emergency manager to relay storm spotter reports as well as backfill Grissom’s leadership on the storms because the base too was in the potential path,” he said.
“Grissom prides itself on being a good neighbor,” said Col. Larry Shaw, 434th Air Refueling Wing commander. “Dan is the perfect example of us providing assistance when the emergency call came in. Col. Scott Russell, 434th Mission Support Group commander, didn’t hesitate to approve Dan’s dispatch to help our friends and neighbors in Kokomo.”
When the skies cleared multiple tornadoes damaged more than 1,000 homes in Kokomo and Howard County leaving a swath of destruction clearly visible from the main roadways.
Grissom firefighters responded with Engine 8 and four fire fighters that evening to help Kokomo Fire with coverage of the city, said John Ireland, Grissom fire chief.
Grissom members continued to step forward and lend a helping hand in the recovery operations phases.
Vital to that was hazmat crews responding to a multitude of transformers damaged as four super-cells formed over the city.
“Tactical 14, the truck that houses our hazardous materials equipment, and crews spent the day assisting the community,” Ireland said.
Base members also went down to help their neighbors clean up and are continuing those efforts.
“I’m so proud of how we responded,” Shaw said. “It’s important for our neighbors to know we care about them and share their spirit of recovery and regrowth. That message is clearly sent by our folks.”
The 434th ARW is the largest KC-135R Stratotanker unit in the Air Force Reserve Command. Men and women from the Hoosier Wing routinely deploy around the world in support of the Air Force mission.
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