Jane Jensen is a lady I met on the Internet through Veterans and Military Families for Progress, the reincarnation of the former Veterans for Kerry organization.

Jane's son was in charge of the helicopter operations for the Superdome after Katrina. His story:

HURRICANE KATRINA: FOUR DAYS AT THE DOME
D+0 THRU D+3 (29 Aug – 1 Sep 05)

Lieutenant Colonel Garrett P. Jensen, Louisiana Army National Guard, “Eagle 03”

What follows is the story to the best of my recollection of the four days after Katrina made landfall while performing as the flight operations officer at the Super Dome as part of the Army National Guard aviation task force which came to be known as Task Force Eagle. It is a story of how a hand full of soldiers and officers forged an ad hoc flight operations team that turned a single pad heliport into “Eagle Base” -- the center of gravity for rotor-wing disaster relief operations in the City of New Orleans.

The Eagle Base team directed the efforts of 150 rotor-wing helicopters from every branch of the service, to include Army National Guard, Regular Army, Coast Guard, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, civilian MEDEVAC and law enforcement. Aircraft types consisted of UH60, CH47, OH58, UH1, H3, CH53, UH65, Dauphine II, and a variety of civilian aircraft. Their missions included search and rescue, MEDEVAC, resupply, displaced civilian evacuation, sling load operations, troop air movement, fire suppression, command and control, VIP and space-A transport.

The Louisiana Army National Guard aviation flight facility at Lakefront Airport had been completely destroyed. Fortunately, we had pre-positioned our aircraft outside of Katrina’s wrath so as to react quickly to disaster recovery mission requirements in the city once the hurricane passed. As a result, UH60 Black Hawk aircraft from the 1-244 Command Aviation Battalion, UH1 Hueys from the 812th Air Ambulance Company and OH58 Kiowa Scout aircraft from the RAID detachment were the first Army aircraft to perform disaster relief missions.

Ideally, missions for our aircraft should have originated from the Louisiana Office for Emergency Operations in Baton Rouge and the Joint Operations Center at the Superdome to Eagle Base. This process, due to communications problems, urgent needs, and an influx of time critical mission requests, was often circumvented out of necessity. Mission requests were received via fax, cell phone, 800 mega hertz radios, satellite phones, commercial phone lines, air crew spot reports and runners. My team did the best we could to follow the priorities provided from higher while maximizing available blade time.

From D+0 through D+3, resourcing these missions with any reasonable lead time was near to impossible. Aircraft staged from several locations to include Baton Rouge, Hammond, Belle Chase Naval Air Station, Lafayette, Pensacola, and the decks of US Navy ships within range of the city. In the first few days, communication with the aviation unit staging areas was often non-existent. Therefore, most aircraft were missioned as they checked in at daybreak.

D+0: At 2100 hours I floated over submerged cars and trucks from Building 35 at Jackson Barracks (The Louisiana National Guard State Area Command Headquarters) in a John Boat to the levee on the Mississippi located south of the barracks. Here I linked up with a UH60 for movement to the Super Dome. Upon arrival, I was marshaled to quarters at an office complex inside the north side of the Dome. Once there I joined Colonel Barry D. Keeling, Commander of Task Force Eagle. We walked through the Dome to the Joint Operations Center which was on located on the south side at ground level.

The situation at the Dome was overwhelming. It had been a collection point for evacuees since D-2. Armed Guardsmen and the New Orleans Police Department had devised a system of barriers to funnel traffic and a reasonable sense of order existed. The Dome’s displaced civilians had MREs, water and power, but you could cut the tension in the air with a knife. I estimated the crowd at 20,000-25,000. At that time the Louisiana National Guard contingent, including the joint staff was 600-700 strong.

Once arriving at the Task Force Pelican Joint Operations Center (JOC), we were given a situation update and mission priorities by Colonel Dabadie, the Louisiana National Guard Chief of Staff. We were soon aware of a critical situation regarding the water level surrounding the Dome’s generator. It was a matter of time before the generator would be flooded and failure was imminent. If we allowed this to occur the Dome would be without power and we feared the its inhabitants would riot and overrun our security. The next day (D+1), Task Force Eagle would play a major role in preventing this potentially catastrophic situation.

D+1: At daybreak, it was quite obvious due to the extent of the flooding in the city that rotor-wing aviation would be the center of gravity for relief efforts. The JOC had relocated to the lower tier of the west parking garage. It was the third and final move in the night that they had made to escape rising water levels. Unbeknownst to us at time, this rising water was the result of the breech at the 17th Street Canal. Repairing this breech at the direction of the Army Corps of Engineers was another future mission in which Task Force Eagle would become heavily engaged.

Civilian MEDEVAC and law enforcement agency aircraft had begun arriving in earnest. It was soon apparent that we had a significant safety issue with only one landing pad and no one controlling the separation of air traffic. There was a double-wide trailer on the south side of the landing pad and I made my way there to take it over. I was greeted by Norm Umholtz, the heliport manager, a retired Navy senior master chief. His trailer had a commercial telephone line, internet access, a fax and copy machine and an operational generator. He was more than willing to yield control. For the next 10 days it became known as Eagle Base.

I quickly conscripted the first three members of my flight operations team. Captain Mark T. Guillory from the GA Air National Guard (an OIF and OEF veteran and J-STARS instructor pilot), Chief Warrant Officer 4s Mike Chapman and Dave Ross (both UH60 Black Hawk pilots and Viet Nam and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans), were brought into the fray. We immediately took charge of the heliport frequency and began performing tower operations.

We then quickly sketched out a traffic pattern landing that identified a landing direction and control points. I also designated Xavier College, a prominent landmark one mile west of the dome, for visual holding. We would run copies of this out to landing aircraft that came in blind. When we ran out of copies we would run out with a sign that had the heliport VHF frequency on it and when they checked in we briefed them on the radio. Eagle Base and the air space immediately surrounding the Dome was saturated. At one point we had three aircraft holding with altitude separation over Xavier College awaiting landing. Something had to be done to expand our landing capacity so we took immediate action.

Adjacent to the south side of the White House was the upper tier of the parking garage. We removed all of the light poles and commandeered a fork lift to move several cars to the level below. We did the same for the lower tier which was to the north of the Joint Operations Center and on the same level. This opened up 8 new landing spots south of Eagle Base on the upper tier and four more on the lower tier.

We then posted a 1:24,000 scale map of the city and began to gain situational awareness. Simultaneously, Governor Blanco, Senators Landreau and Vitter, Mayor Nagan, Lieutenant General Honore (Task Force Katrina Commander), Major General Landreneau (the State Adjutant General), the Commander of the USS Bataan, a USCG Captain from New Orleans and other key leaders huddled together for a meeting. It became apparent that our double-wide trailer would not only house the busiest heliport flight operations center in the world but would also become an on-call meeting site for the State, City, senior military leaders, law enforcement, fire department, FEMA personnel, and reporters.

Two air traffic controllers from the USS Bataan, Chiefs Cameron and Brownlee, soon arrived with their own radios and we added a UHF frequency to our VHF. Now we had a tower frequency for controlling aircraft and another for missioning aircraft. The Coast Guard from New Orleans checked in with their Dauphines and H60s. Lieutenant Junior Grade Shay Williams, an H60 pilot from New Orleans, stayed behind and I conscripted him into my flight operations team as well.

Many missions were going on simultaneously. The 812th Air Ambulance hoist aircraft and OH58 RAID helicopters from the Louisiana Army National Guard worked in conjunction with one another performing rooftop extractions. We also missioned the Coast Guard for rescue operations. They were assigned sectors using the major roads and waterways as boundaries. On D+3 we evolved to using an alpha-numeric matrix system with satellite imagery from the USGS. By D+5 we were adopted the grid-matrix system provided by Northern Command out of Tyndall Air Force Base.

Reports were coming in of large concentrations of displaced civilians who had gravitated to the high ground for evacuation along the I-10 high rise interchanges in the eastern part of the city. Some waded onto the high ground and others were brought there by the growing fleet of boats controlled by the US Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. I heard unverified stories of gang members at certain locations charging people money to pass through them onto the high ground. Army and Coast Guard Black Hawks were landing at the Dome and Soldiers quickly formed “fire brigades” to upload MREs and water. Resupply was dropped off at these collection sites and then evacuees were back-hauled to Dome. At some of these collection points our aircrews felt threatened with the onslaught of displaced civilians rushing their aircraft. When able we inserted security teams to restore order.

Aircraft tasking requests, both formal and informal, were rushing into Eagle Base in every conceivable manner. Calls came in from every hospital in the city to perform evacuation operations. While these missions were continuing, we dispatched two Black Hawks for several turns to bring sand bags in from the New Orleans Levee Department Headquarters on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain. These were used to dam up the water around the Dome generator so the LAANG engineers could pump the water out from around it. The heroic efforts of these engineers saved the generator which assured power to the Dome and averted a potentially catastrophic situation.

Another critical mission surfaced when we became aware of a 100 meter-long breech at the 17th Street canal levee just off of the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Under the direction of the Corps of Engineers we dispatched two UH60s to drop 3,000 sand bags into the breech. Feedback from the crews was that the first sandbags disappeared in the levee and that the slings were not recoverable. Guidance from higher was to begin again the next day in earnest with Chinooks and Black Hawks because several hundred slings were in-bound. This became a standing mission.

By mid-day, we were informed by senior military leadership on-site that we could no longer evacuate displaced civilians into the Dome. It was well beyond its intended capacity. We then began to deliver them to an LZ that became known as the “Clover Leaf.” It was located the intersection of I-10 and the Causeway a few miles to the west of the Dome. At its peak several thousand evacuees were present and we continued to resupply them as well. The numbers became unmanageable and we that evening we were informed that the Clover Leaf was now closed for evacuees as well.

A medical triage site had been set up at the Dome behind the south end zone since the Dome had been opened for displaced civilians two days before Katrina made landfall. Several hundred patients were there awaiting evacuation and the numbers were growing rapidly. Civilian air ambulances arrived and departed non-stop evacuating patients out of the Dome but they could not keep up with the in-coming flow. It was surrounded by water so ground ambulances were ineffective. Air ambulance operations continued non-stop until sunset.

As the day came to a close, we were informed of another potential critical situation. The Dome was short several thousand MREs for the evening meal. We would find out the next day that the civilian-operated MRE resupply trucks never made it into the city. Apparently, the drivers dropped their trailers in Harahan, 15 miles to the west and drove away without notifying FEMA. Anticipating the potentially volatile situation of thousands of agitated hungry displaced civilians, the Louisiana National Guard Joint Task Force personnel who had occupied the office complex on the north side of the Dome evacuated to the parking garage below the heliport. The Guardsmen and NOPD on guard remained in place.

On D+1, Lieutenant General Honore provided us mission guidance and priorities. They were search and rescue, MEDEVAC, displaced civilian evacuation and resupply. Working within these orders, we did our best to maximize available blade time to evacuate the city. Still short staffed, and operating literally in the crisis management mode, battle-tracking was near to impossible. I estimate that we controlled 300 sorties from the Dome on this day.

At sundown the constant roar of turning rotors was reduced to a deafening silence. I gathered my team together for an after action review (AAR) of the day’s events. We identified several improvements to our operation. One of these was creating a spreadsheet of commonly used lat/longs and frequencies. This paid big dividends when we provided it to aircrews that were not familiar with city landmarks. We continued to update this spreadsheet nightly and it is still in effect.

D+2: The day resumed with the same OPTEMPO that had characterized the previous day. Our priorities remained the same. Heaven sent, our Regular Army brethren from Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk and the 1st Cavalry and 4th Infantry Divisions from Fort Hood began to arrive on scene. They brought with them UH-1 MEDEVAC hoist aircraft, UH60 Black Hawks and CH47 Chinooks. We integrated their aircraft and LNOs into the mission flow.

During the previous night, one of our Louisiana Guardsmen had his gun forcibly taken from him by an evacuee and had been shot in the leg. As the Soldier was taken from the Dome, several other evacuees began chanting. He was transported by one of our air ambulances to Baton Rouge. The shooter was in hand cuffs outside of the White House awaiting an aircraft to take him to a confinement facility.

Missing for most of the day was the Coast Guard. Apparently, the E2 (callsign “Omaha”) that usurped control of the TFR (temporary flight restriction) over the city had heard a rumor that thugs were shooting at our aircraft. Instead of validating the rumor, they were denying the Coast Guard clearance from landing at the Dome. To my knowledge we never had an aircraft take fire during our entire mission.

Another improvement identified in the AAR from the night before, one of my Scout pilots brought in some blaze orange spray paint and we painted pad numbers on the upper tier and letters on the lower tier to facilitate the flow of traffic. Now we could pinpoint aircraft for landing which greatly reduced our need for ground guides.

Scout aircraft located the dropped re-supply trailers in Harahan and broke the locks. UH60s began transporting the MREs back into the Dome. Another crisis averted. On the same mission scout aircraft located concentrations of buses attempting to find a dry route into the city from the east. They reconnoitered a route and dropped off personnel to lead the buses into the city as close as possible to the Dome to begin evacuation.

Troops were now being air lifted into the Dome to build combat power to re-take the Morial Convention Center. From the Dome they would go by ground convoy a few short miles down to the River Walk. We landed Army CH47s and Air Force CH53s on the North Pad and required them to “land light” because the heliport was not rated for their aircraft weight. The pitch in their blades made their rotor wash the equivalent of hurricane force winds. Eagle Base shook as departing aircraft were back-filled with patients from the Dome. A combined effort between civilian and Army Guard medical personnel shuttled patients by van and ambulance to the north heliport. Soldiers stood by to assist them onto awaiting aircraft. FEMA had set up another collection point at Louis Armstrong International Airport for both patients and evacuees. This was the next operational evacuation point.

Securing the Morial Convention Center was one of the high priority missions for D+2. Several thousand displaced civilians were sheltered there and the situation was critical. On D+1, the New Orleans Police Department was overwhelmed and left it unguarded. Inside the Convention Center there were good citizens mixed with thugs. I am still hearing stories of the atrocities committed there. I was told of how vigilantes had extinguished two of them before the troops arrived. Battle-clad Guardsmen secured the facility without incident and soon the airlift of evacuees from the Convention Center, just a few short miles from the Dome, would begin.

To control air operations at the Convention Center I dispatched CW5 Kevin Dares (LA Army National Guard), CW3 Chad Devillier (NJ Army National Guard). Their mission was originally to control air traffic for the initial evacuation, but the Convention Center continued to become a displaced civilian collection point and they remained behind until it was closed. For three straight days with little or no sleep, they marshaled load after load of evacuees from the Center Superman LZ, controlling aircraft in and out of the landing zone in a field just to the south. Heroes in their own right, the controllers of Superman LZ returned exhausted on D+3.

Numerous UH60 Black Hawks were missioned to assist the severely saturated civilian air ambulance services in the evacuation of the five major hospitals in the city. We also dropped engineers at various pumping stations around the city. This allowed them to assess the stations’ operability and deliver spare parts.

On D+2, search and rescue, MEDEVAC, displaced civilian evacuation, resupply, troop movement and sling load operations at the 17th Street canal breech continued through daylight hours. VIPs continued to come and go from Eagle Base and as more general officers arrived in Southeastern Louisiana we were now tasked with splitting aircraft from our previously given priorities to provide them aircraft. This became an increasing hardship.

My flight operations team had now grown to the point that I could divide the team into two shifts. One of my key players was a Louisiana native USMC First Lieutenant Cobra pilot who was on leave from Camp Pendleton. Under my direction I now had a total of 12 personnel from the USN, USMC, USCG, USAF, Army and Air National Guard, and Regular Army. They were rated aviators, air controllers, flight operations and communication specialists. During the D+2 AAR, we were finally able to put a process in place that allowed us to mission and battle track aircraft. I estimate the number of sorties for this day to have reached 500.

D+3: The total number of aircraft under Task Force Eagle (Army National Guard) had now reached 130. This did not include the USCG, USN, USAF, USMC and civilian MEDEVAC and law enforcement aircraft. Eagle Base continued to be the center of gravity for disaster relief operations within the city. We now recorded all mission taskings on a standardized form, assigned them mission numbers and inputted them on a spreadsheet which was projected on the wall. As aircraft checked in we would match tail numbers to missions. Finally, we could formally battle-track. It was just in time because D+3 would be our highest mission-load day. It peaked with 800 sorties.

FEMA had now established a staging area for resupply and refuel at Zephyr Stadium on Airline Highway in Kenner just a few miles to the west of the dome. Eventually a tactical tower was set up there with their own frequency. Prior to D+3, our aircraft were getting refueled at Louis Armstrong International Airport and Belle Chase Naval Air Station. Bottlenecks occurred in refuel and we would lose communication with missioned aircraft for up to an hour at a time. The opening of Zephyr greatly improved our station time for recovery operations. Also, no longer did we have to run resupply out of the Dome. We could mission our lift assets to resupply at Zephyr, drop off badly needed MREs and water to collection points, and then back-haul evacuees to Louis Armstrong International Airport.

At mid-morning, a shooter emptied his pistol at some law enforcement officers from atop the interchange at the south end of aircraft parking. Although not receiving fire, it was close enough to cause one aircrew in parking to take cover behind their Black Hawk. The “perp” then tried to blend into a crowd of displaced civilians. Another example of vigilante justice, the agitated crowd threw him off of the 100’ high rise and into three feet of water below.

Good news came in the form of success from the 17th Street canal breech. The sling loading of the 3,000 lbs sandbags was beginning to restore the integrity of the levy.

Hospital personnel from the major hospitals around the city began to call the Eagle Base and ask for me by name in an effort to evacuate their patients and staff. Often times when I thought we had cleared a hospital I would receive another call saying that more patients had “floated in” to their hospitals for further evacuation by air. I continued to mission aircraft to the hospitals until the calls stopped and the aircrews reported their helipads were clear.

I soon began receiving calls from the Orleans Parish Emergency Operations Center regarding fires that were burning in the city. We dispatched two CH47 Chinook aircraft with 2,000 gallon “Bambi-Buckets” to drop water assisting the firemen on the scene. The following day, I moved a New Orleans Fire Department officer, Captain Helmsman, into Eagle Base with a radio to perform liaison officer duties. Under his guise, a team of NOFD personnel, contract Fire Hawks and Chinooks extinguished 25 fires in the 10 days that followed Katrina.

By the end of D+3, we had totaled nearly 300 missions and ran 1,500 sorties in and out of the Super Dome. At this point we could safely say that we had transitioned from crisis management to recovery. You could almost feel the city breathe a sigh of relief. In the days that followed, we continued to battle-track and mission aircraft according to the priorities established by our higher headquarters. On D+7, Lieutenant General Honore introduced my team to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff as “heroes” and he thanked us for the lives that we had saved.

On D+10 we concluded our mission with a net call that Eagle Base was shutting down and to join the rest of Task Force Eagle located at Belle Chase Naval Air Station southeast of the city. As I write this, one of my team still has no word regarding the safety of his mother and sister. Many of us had extensive damage to our homes and lost our automobiles. These were remarkable Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors.

The numbers measuring the success of rotor-wing operations in support of Hurricane Katrina disaster relief are still being tabulated. But this unprecedented historic joint service effort played a vital role in assisting the rescue of 60,000 displaced civilians from the City of New Orleans. Call it skill, blind luck, or the grace of god, but every landing and take-off at the Super Dome for the entire time that Eagle Base was in operation was completed without a single safety-related incident.

Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
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