ATLANTA -- Air Force Reserve Command’s Aerial Spray Squadron from the 910th Airlift Wing, Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Ohio, answered another call from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention May 1.
However, this time it wasn’t in response to a natural disaster. Instead, members of the squadron attended the 2006 National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID) Recognition Awards Ceremony here. They received an NCID “Partners in Public Health” award for their unit’s response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The squadron provides the only full-time, fixed-wing aerial spray capability in the Department of Defense
Col. Timothy J. Thomson, 910th Airlift Wing commander, received the award from Ms. Rima Khabbaz, director of the NCID, on behalf of the squadron.
“The NCID is a group of people that dedicates their lives to studying and preventing infectious diseases,” Colonel Thomson said. “It says something that we’ve been recognized by such an agency for what all the Airmen with our aerial spray mission at Youngstown do as part of homeland defense and while protecting our military personnel from Vector-borne diseases no matter where in the world they may be.”
The award recognizes squadron reservists for containing the threat of mosquitoes and minimizing their negative impact on the morale of people working and living without electrical power following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Reservists from the 910th Airlift Wing deployed to Duke Field, Fla., in September 2005 to set up a base of operations for aerial spray missions after the hurricanes ravaged the Gulf Coast area of the United States.
“The vector control missions to Louisiana and Texas were successful mainly because the Aerial Spray Squadron was able to mount stop gap spray missions while local mosquito control districts worked toward resuming normal functionality,” said Ms. Mel Fernandez, deputy director of the CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases.
The hurricane response missions were entirely voluntary for the squadron reservists. Many of them used personal leave from their places of employment to participate in the relief effort.
“These officers and enlisted personnel were instrumental in providing timely relief to the citizens and relief workers in both Louisiana and Texas from the affliction of mosquitoes and flies produced by these storms. Their tireless efforts to ensure that the mission was successful should be commended,” Ms. Fernandez said. (AFRC News Service)