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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. -- 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...

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...

The following release concerns active duty and retired military personnel in the area impacted by Katrina who normally use AAFES facilities at Keesler AFB, Camp Shelby and Jackson Barracks. DALLAS -Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) officials have confirmed that its main BX at Keesler AFB suffered major damage due to Hurricane Katrina and will be out of service for an indefinite period of time. AAFES officials believe it will be a few more weeks before there will be proper assessments by engineers on the extent of the damage and a timeline of when the store can reopen. "The...

SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany (AFPN) -- Nineteen years of growing up around the capricious hurricanes of Pascagoula, Miss., kept a staff sergeant here relatively calm upon hearing the news that a surge in the Gulf of Mexico was on the way. But the reality of Hurricane Katrina’s wrath soon set in. Following the devastation and displacement of thousands of hapless victims since the Aug. 29 catastrophic event, Staff Sgt. Jamie Bosarge said she never felt more helpless trying to save her family from peril. With more than 4,000 miles of Atlantic Ocean separating the Airman from her family, Sergeant Bosarge...

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...

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. (AFPN) -- The Tanker Airlift Control Center here started generating missions Air Mobility Command aircrews will fly supporting Hurricane Katrina relief operations in Louisiana and Mississippi. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, through Northern Command and U.S. Transportation Command, asked for airlift support to fly relief supplies to the stricken region, said Col. Jeff Franklin, the center controller working hurricane relief mission taskings. “We’ve already tasked two aeromedical evacuation airlift missions to fly from Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., to (Lackland AFB) in San Antonio,” he said. “In addition, AMC has been tasked to...

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....