On September 2, I received my orders, and on September 3, I reported for duty at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, to help with disaster relief following Hurricane Katrina. I was glad to be called to serve.

As a member of the Air Force Reserve, I am an Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer for National Security Emergency Preparedness Agency. It’s my job to help to link US Air Force resources to state and local needs in times of emergency, delivering help to people in need through FEMA, and state and local officials.

Arriving at Tyndall 5 days after Katrina had roared ashore in New Orleans, I was immediately assigned to the Air Force Crisis Action Team Command Center, where I reported directly to Joint Air Force Component Commander (JAFCC) Major General Scott Mayes.

Our mission was to keep track of aircraft and coordinate airlifts for the entire Gulf Coast region. We provided airlift for 5,500 tons of water, ice and supplies in response to Katrina. We provided airlift for 40,000 people going into and out of the disaster area. We provided Air Force medical teams comprised of 351 nurses, doctors and medical specialists. Using Air Force and other military helicopters, we conducted thousands of rescue missions, resulting in 4,801 saved lives -- each one someone’s son or daughter, mother or father, brother or sister. We only wish we could have helped save more. I could go on.

My job is to translate local needs into Air Force missions, which in this case meant working with FEMA Joint Field Offices set up in Mississippi and Louisiana. We worked in shifts around the clock to deliver assistance. But early response to the human need fell short. As commissions are set up to determine why, many lessons will emerge, and I look forward to the findings. Americans should expect better than what initially happened in New Orleans.

After my first week at Tyndall, Major General Mayes asked me to conduct site visits in Mississippi and Louisiana. The objective was to directly communicate to state, local and National Guard leadership his commitment to serving their needs. He also wanted me to establish face-to-face contacts, to help us better serve people in need there.

We started at Gulfport National Guard Base, where we surveyed the base and talked with commanders about their issues and concerns. I also met with Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, Public Safety Commissioner George Philips, and his executive officer, Bobby Grimes. I told Governor Barbour that I was there on the JFACC’s behalf to identify his state’s needs and concerns. He thanked me, and asked us to join him at his emergency operations center (EOC) for his daily situation briefing for the press.

At the briefing, Governor Barbour thanked me for the military support the state of Mississippi has received. He also asked me to thank Governor Jim Douglas and the people of Vermont for sending 75 truckloads of supplies for the people of Mississippi.

Later, I met with Lt. General Carl Strock, commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers, and many other emergency relief personnel at various installations and EOCs. I learned a lot about how the situation had evolved, what had gone right, and what had gone wrong in the face of an event of unprecedented proportion.

I inspected similar sites in Louisiana. At the EOC in Baton Rouge, Colonel Cliff Oliver of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety met us. He gave us a tour and expressed his gratitude for the military support. He also thanked me for the support they have received from the State of Vermont. We met the Assistant Adjutant General for the Air National Guard, Brod Veillon, and then with Lt Governor Mitch Landrieu.

The next day we went into New Orleans and the convention center, where the Texas National Guard Joint Task Force Commander briefed us. I made a short visit to the USS Iwo Jima, the US Navy ship docked off New Orleans and serving as a command center.

Lastly, we stopped by Jefferson Parrish, south of New Orleans, to see the 115 Vermont Guard soldiers and their commander, Lt. Colonel Peter Firkey, who are deployed there. Many of these soldiers had just returned from Iraq. One brought home a Purple Heart. They were proud of their service in Iraq, and proud to be making a difference now in their own country, under challenging conditions.

They are headquartered in a school that sustained heavy damage from the storm. Although they’re there to provide security, they also got right to work repairing the school and cleaning it up. Here’s where the level and variety of expertise you’ll find among the citizen-soldiers of the Guard makes a big difference. Master plumbers, master electricians, mechanics, a refrigeration expert, and more make up this group of Vermonters, whose contribution will never be forgotten by the school’s principal and the people of Jefferson Parish. The fire department across the street is grateful for their help in stabilizing their neighborhood. These Vermonters have worked hard, and their families have sacrificed -- but they have made a huge difference to the people in Jefferson Parrish, Louisiana.

The enormity of the Katrina disaster is mind-boggling; it is fully 4 times greater than the greatest disaster we’ve ever known. 500,000 people are now without homes. It’s almost as if every home in the state of Vermont had been destroyed, leaving our 600,000 citizens homeless -- a magnitude of disaster that’s unthinkable for us.

I have returned to Vermont with many observations that can help emergency preparedness and emergency response in our own state and elsewhere in our country. The lessons learned were costly ones, and should not to be forgotten.

While I was in Mississippi, Governor Barbour assigned me a very professional Mississippi State Trooper. I will never forget how he greeted me. He said, “Governor, on behalf of the 150,000 Mississippians who just lost their homes, and all of those who have lost their lives, I want to thank Vermonters for helping us out.” Since then, the homeless toll has risen to 240,000. I told him I’d carry that message home with me.