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HURRICANE IKE: Texas Military personnel ready

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Governor Rick Perry authorized state active duty deployment for up to 7,500 Texas Military personnel earlier this week and approximately 3,000 Soldiers, Airmen and thousands of high profile vehicles, generators and other assets have already deployed for the pre-landfall phase of operations.

Texas Military Forces have deployed ground troops to Kelly USA in San Antonio under the leadership of Col. John Nichols, Task Force Commander. Other locations with a Texas Military Forces presence are Beaumont, Port Arthur, Matagorda, Houston, Pasadena, San Antonio, Weslaco, Orange, Temple, Carthage and Lufkin. While these communities can count on troops being there, the troops are flexible and mobile enough that when weather conditions change, their locations may change to protect troops and assets.

C-130s Hercules aircraft from the 136th Airlift Wing together with assets from the Delaware National Guard, Air Force and U.S. Reserve flew 24/7 missions from Corpus Christi International Airport, Beaumont and Galveston airport to evacuate approximately 500 special needs patients.

Teams included in the evacuation were: 6th Medical Group's Mobile Aeromedical Staging Facility (MASF) from Mac Dill Air Force Base, the 59th Medical Wing Critical Casualty Air Transport Team (CCATT) from Lackland Air Force Base, and a Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) from San Bernadino, CA.

Texas State Guard personnel are assisting Red Cross with shelter management and facilities have been activated in Texarkana, Tyler, Tully Stadium in Houston, Marshall, Mineola, Huntsville, Dallas, Austin and New Braunfels.

Earlier today helicopters from the Texas Army National Guard helicopters from the

1-108, 36th Aviation Brigade participated together with the Coast Guard, DoD and Texas Task Force 1 in a search and rescue operation involving 29 people and 16 pets who found themselves stranded on a bridge from Bolivar Island.

Operation Coastal Sweep, a mission concluded Thursday, included Texas Army National Guard air assets. Aviators flew in four different counties to urge people in harm's way to evacuate as soon as possible. They also made sweeps to ascertain that emergency personnel were evacuated safely and that buildings were boarded up and secure. The unified effort, initiated by the Governor's Division of Emergency Management was comprised of multi-agency, federal and state assets including Department of Public Safety and Civil Air Patrol.

With the storm still many miles away from the coast people sheltering-in-place are already beginning to feel IKE's momentous force. During the next 24 hours, the storm will dictate the actions of all emergency personnel, however, as soon as weather permits, sixteen helicopters and two fixed-wing aircraft will deploy from Austin, Laredo, Edinburgh and Weslaco to initiate search and rescue missions. An additional fifty-five National Guard aircraft from 10 different states and the District of Columbia are pre-staged in Temple and San Angelo to assist when necessary.

Texas Military Forces personnel are trained and ready to assist during IKE's aftermath. The Soldiers and Airmen will hunker down with their fellow Texans and come out on the other side to help with ice, water, food and enough equipment to help clear away debris, trees and downed power lines.

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