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~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Keesler Air Force Base, MississippiKeesler Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in Biloxi, a city along the Gulf Coast in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. The base is named in honor of aviator 2d Lt Samuel Reeves Keesler Jr., a Mississippi native killed in France during the First World War. The base is home of Headquarters, Second Air Force (2 AF) and the 81st Training Wing (81 TW) of the Air Education and Training Command (AETC). The base has specialized in ground trade training since its opening in...

You'll be happy to hear that Biloxi's gaming business not only has made big strides since Hurricane Katrina devastated the coastline, but also that the restored casinos have expanded what they offer, and new properties are on the way. Before the storm that destroyed tens of thousands of gulf-area homes, Biloxi had nine casinos. Today, seven are back in business, including the glitzy Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, which reopened at the end of August, a year after Katrina hit. After the hurricane, the city changed its laws to allow casinos -- previously confined to floating structures at the water's...

6/13/2006 - KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AFPN) -- As this base struggles with housing shortages from Hurricane Katrina's wake, Airmen being assigned here accompanied by family members need to have a plan before they leave their current assignment. Due to Katrina, permission for servicemembers to bring their family members to Keesler has become much like those for an overseas assignment. Airmen now must obtain authorization for their dependents' concurrent travel before coming here. For concurrent travel to be approved, Airmen must have a feasible housing plan for their families, due to the lack of affordable housing on the Mississippi...

3/7/2006 - KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AFPN) -- After the devastation from Hurricane Katrina left the base and the surrounding area in dire straits, the community desperately needed help to recover. Airmen here have answered that call. “We were in crisis mode right after the hurricane trying to make sure people had the bare minimum to survive,” said Maj. Teresa Roberts, director of the family support center. Since Hurricane Katrina, the center has logged more than 38,000 volunteer hours supporting all facets of the rebuilding effort. They are still handling about 10 requests per week with assisting in clearing...

3/2/2006 - KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AFPN) -- In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, people here don’t take things like electricity, drinking water, housing, offices and plumbing for granted. Thanks to a team effort, each day brings improvements in base infrastructure, facilities and utilities, as the base braces for the next hurricane season. “Infrastructure is the blood and guts of the base,” said Maj. Jeff Szatanek, 81st Civil Engineer Squadron Operations Flight commander. Alfred Watkins, base infrastructure manager, described the challenges civil engineers faced both during and after Katrina’s fury struck Keesler nearly six months ago. “When the base...

Command: Category 4 Lt Col Randy Coats, 333d Training Squadron/CC Command. There's no better job in the world. After seven years in jobs with “command authority” and two squadron commands, I figured I had a good idea what command was all about. I was wrong. What changed my mind? Four words--"Shelter Commander" and "Hurricane Katrina." From 28 Aug - 2 Sep, I lived with 730 of my "closest friends" in 50-year old Bryan Hall at Keesler AFB, MS. It was my third stint as a shelter commander, but it was unlike anything I had experienced before. As life slowly returns...

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AFPN) -- Helping repair Keesler after Hurricane Katrina struck the base is not the only thing on the mind of civil engineers deployed here; they are also helping the people here get back on their feet. The engineers, deployed from the 56th Civil Engineer Squadron at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., are helping the 81st Training Wing repair the damage Hurricane Katrina left behind. Not only are they repairing damage on base, but Sept. 17 they were at Stanley Morgan's house removing moldy drywall, sopping wet insulation, scattered debris, ruined furniture and, unfortunately, memories collected...

SAN ANTONIO -- Part of the huge medical center at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. -- closed by Hurricane Katrina damage -- could open sooner than base officials estimated less than a week ago. The section, on the hospital’s first floor, could open in as little as two months, said Brig. Gen. (Dr.) James J. Dougherty, 81st Medical Group commander. But it will still take at least six months to completely reopen the Air Force’s second largest medical center, he said. The hurricane knocked out the center’s ability to provide tertiary care -- highly specialized skills, technology and support services....

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Training in five key career fields restarts for 400 Airmen here Sept. 19, six months sooner than base officials forecasted more than a week ago. Then, more students will start training the following week, said Col. Jessie Canaday, 81st Training Group commander. And more students will gradually enter training each week after that as this base continues to recover from the pounding it took from Hurricane Katrina. Air Force officials determined what training would start based on the service’s critical needs, said the colonel, commander of the Air Force’s largest training group. “We’re taking...

GULFPORT, Miss. -- The Air Force joined a unified medical command of local, state and federal agencies aiming to restore primary care services to Mississippi’s ravaged Gulf Coast. The area needs a unified response since Hurricane Katrina crippled its medical infrastructure and scattered many of its health-care providers, said Col. (Dr.) Deborah Burgess of the 81st Medical Group at nearby Keesler Air Force Base. More than two weeks after the killer storm, thousands of people still do not have the basic primary medical services they need, she said. Medical providers displaced by the storm are still recovering from the disaster,...

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AFPN) -- When the call comes in for an air expeditionary group to deploy, it is usually to a destination with sand, located on foreign soil. Although the sand is still present, this time the group was called to deploy inside the United States -- right at Keesler. The 97th Air Expeditionary Group, comprising Airmen from around the United States, began arriving Sept. 6 to focus on humanitarian missions. “Our mission is to provide support capabilities for organizations such as the (state of) Mississippi and the Federal Emergency Management Agencies which request Department of Defense...

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Two weeks after Hurricane Katrina caused $500 million in damages at this training base, it has become a vital staging area for Gulf Coast disaster relief efforts. The base has a new transitional mission supporting relief efforts, said Brig. Gen. William T. Lord, 81st Training Wing commander. And the fact it has recovered enough to perform that mission is proof that people should not count Keesler out, he said. But is the case capable of making a comeback? “You bet we are,” the general said. And in the meantime, Keesler will continue its new...

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Staff Sgt. Art Hughes brushed wood chips and sawdust from his black T-shirt, which smelled of sweat and fresh pine. After cutting down trees all morning, it was break time, so he grabbed a bottle of water and gulped it down. Across the street, the rest of “Youngblood’s Crew” kept working. The crew, led by Master Sgt. Randy Youngblood, was clearing part of the mess Hurricane Katrina left behind on Pinelawn Street in this base’s Bayview Housing Area. “We have other crews working at some other housing areas,” said Sergeant Hughes, a pavements and...

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFPN) -- Twenty Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., people who evacuated here because of Hurricane Katrina made a bittersweet day trip back to their homes and belongings Sept. 5, just one week after the storm devastated much of the Gulf Coast. The Airmen rode in a convoy of eight security-escorted vehicles for the three-hour drive from here to Biloxi, Miss. Staff Sgt. Jose Espola-Negron, an air traffic control instructor with the 334th Training Readiness Squadron, evacuated with his wife and 3-year-old and 1-month-old daughters. He had already braved Hurricane Hugo in his homeland of Puerto...

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AFPN) -- Five days after Hurricane Katrina dramatically changed many lives in the Gulf Coast region, a couple here began a new chapter in their own lives. Tech. Sgt. Daniel McMullen of the 335th Training Squadron and his girlfriend of three years, LaVerne, exchanged wedding vows Sept. 3 outside one of the base's seven shelters used to house people here since the hurricane struck. Guests of the bride and groom, all who shared a shelter with the couple, dressed for the occasion in the most fashionable way. The groomsmen wore reflective safety belts while the...

While the Army ordered its Louisiana-based troops to stay and fight in Iraq, the Air Force said Saturday it would send 300 airmen home from Iraq and Afghanistan to handle emergencies on a Mississippi air base devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The airmen, all based at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., will start flying home during the next two weeks, said Air Force Capt. David Small, spokesman for U.S. Central Command Air Forces in Qatar. Nearly 100 more airmen scheduled to leave Keesler for war duty also will stay behind, said Brig. Gen. Allen G. Peck, the deputy commander...

SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) -- For information relating to Hurricane Katrina, to include Stop Movement and entitlements, the following phone numbers and Web sites are available: The Air Force Personnel Center Personnel Readiness Center can be contacted toll free at (800) 435-9941. The PRC can provide information about bases affected by Stop Movement and provide instructions for contacting a person’s unit control center. The AFPC Web site at www.afpc.randolph.af.mil contains information on entitlements for Air Force people affected by the hurricane, such as limited evacuation allowances and expenses for lodging, transportation, meals and incidentals. Click on the "Hurricane Katrina" tab. The...

SAN ANTONIO -- For the first time since Hurricane Katrina forced them into shelters, 6,000 people at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., ventured outside for a breath of fresh air. That was late in the day on Aug. 30, just after eating their first hot meal since the devastating hurricane nearly blew the base and that section of the Gulf Coast off the map. People stood in line for up to two hours to get their first hot food in days, said Lt. Col. Claudia Foss, the 81st Training Wing spokesperson. “We were able to feed 6,000 people at one...

SAN ANTONIO -- Hurricane Katrina smashed “a good 95 percent” of Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., turning it into a pile of debris and mud, said a base spokesperson. Lt. Col. Claudia Foss, 81st Training Wing public affairs officer, said water surges from the Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Biloxi reached depths of five to six feet at times. “Whether it was five feet, one foot or a few inches, at one point everything was covered with bay or Gulf water,” she said. Fortunately, there have been no reports of people killed or injured at Keesler, she said....