Fifth Haiti relief mission from Valley air base begins

The C-130 Hercules aircraft left with a six-member crew and two crew chiefs.

VIENNA — The fifth relief mission from the 910th Airlift Wing at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station took off Friday morning to aid relief efforts in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

The crew left for Florida just after 11 a.m., but it has not yet received orders or details of its mission, said Maj. Isaac Oh, who is commanding the crew.

“It looks like we’ll be taking a lot of relief supplies and people,” he said.

The C-130 Hercules aircraft left with a six-member crew and two crew chiefs, said Oh, who is also a commercial pilot for Delta Airlines.

“This is a great opportunity,” he said. “This is what America is all about — to help other countries and provide relief.”

The takeoff on Friday marked the fifth relief mission to Haiti for the 910th Airlift Wing, Master Sgt. Bob Barko said.

In previous missions, crews have brought food and water to the island country, which was hit by a magnitude-7 earthquake Jan. 12. Youngstown-based C-130s have landed in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and San Isidro, Dominican Republic, where supplies were loaded onto trucks for an eight-hour drive into Haiti, Barko said.

“The 910th will provide birds as long as they’re needed,” Barko said. “I think the humanitarian side of the military is something folks don’t think about.”

The fourth crew, which returned minutes after the latest took off, transported injured Haitians to Atlanta to receive care at an American hospital and hauled supplies from Tampa Bay, Fla., to the country, said Lt. Colonel Daniel Sarachene.

Sarachene said that the small airfield where the crew landed was busy with relief traffic and that he could see displaced Haitians living outside right up to the airport.

The six people Sarachene’s crew transported were “apprehensive, but grateful,” he said.

“They were mostly medicated. They seemed appreciative,” Sarachene said. “They had that look on them that they were scared.”

rrouan@vindy.com