Airmen from the 179th Airlift Wing (AW) Force Support Squadron arrived back home November 5, after spending a month in Puerto Rico providing support to hurricane relief efforts.
The team originally responded to relief effort needs Oct. 4, when they traveled to Puerto Rico with a Disaster Relief Mobile Kitchen Trailer (DRMKT). The DRMKT is designed to support the first responder's primary mission – reacting quickly to contingency disasters.
Food cooked and served rapidly to the needy and hungry is morale-boosting and a key logistical component of any first response.
The team of Airmen were cooking up and served thousands of meals for Army National Guard (NG) Soldiers assigned to the 59th Troop Command from South Carolina and Soldiers from the 190th Engineer Battalion from the Puerto Rico NG.
“The energy from the DRMKT team is a relief to the Engineers who have been out all day conducting missions” said Capt. Evan Howard, the officer in charge of the team.
Airmen used the extremely flexible DRMKT, which supports virtually any field-feeding scenario, from quickly prepared boil-in-the-bag meals to restaurant-quality meals for up to 1,000 people in under 90 minutes. The 179th AW is always ready to respond with a team of trusted Airmen for state and federal missions