Military operations continue in the wake of Rita

The Texas National Guard and Air National Guard have been nobly serving their home state in the effort to bring relief to those in need after Rita.

According to this article:

Rodriguez leads a force of about 16,000 Army National Guardsmen and 3,000 Air National Guardsmen. They are working in the affected areas providing search and rescue, humanitarian relief, security, transportation, communications, medical assistance and debris removal.

According to officials at Texas Gov. Rick Perry's office, the National Guard has helped provide 167 water trucks containing nearly 8.5 million half-liter bottles of water, 60 ice trucks, and 17 refrigerated trucks are staging in Beaumont have been or are being dispatched to impacted areas. More than 500,000 gallons of fuel have been delivered to impacted areas since Sept. 22, including more than 25,000 gallons dispensed directly to over 5,000 stranded motorists, and 154 generators have been delivered to communities suffering power losses, with a priority given to hospitals and medical facilities.

The Air Force has been doing its part as well:

U.S. Air Force search-and-rescue crews have been combing the Gulf Coast since the afternoon of Sept. 24, and the Air Force's auxiliary volunteer force continues to assist in aerial damage assessment, while a variety of other specialized units continue to meet the needs of the areas affected by Hurricane Rita.
Thirteen HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters, equipped with pararescue crews from the 920th Rescue Wing at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla., and the 347th Rescue Wing at Moody Air Force Base, Ga., flew 14 search-and-rescue missions, totaling nearly 50 flight hours, Sept. 24. The missions saved five individuals who were stranded, and the crews assisted in six other rescues. These crews will continue to methodically comb the coast today, Air Force officials said.

Members of the all-volunteer Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the Air Force, have flown the majority of aerial damage-assessment missions in recent days, a total of 42 missions to date concerning Hurricane Rita. They've also assisted with search-and-rescue missions. The CAP is staging 12 aircraft and 20 aircrews out of Dallas Mission Base, in Addison, Texas, and from Stinson, Texas, near San Antonio.

An Air Force U-2 surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft from the 99th Reconnaissance Squadron at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., will return to Beale this afternoon after completing a mission to collect imagery of the affected Gulf Coast.

To accomplish these missions, the Air Force flew a total of 19 missions Sept. 24, for a total of 82 missions flown to date in preparation and response to Hurricane Rita, and planned to fly at least 10 additional missions today in the affected Texas and Louisiana coastal areas.

The Air Force has also flown numerous evacuation missions:

As part of a comprehensive, government-led hurricane-relief effort, the U.S. Air Force evacuated nearly 2,000 Gulf Coast residents from the path of Hurricane Rita Sept. 22.
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Officials estimate that more than 1.5 million people fled the Gulf region because of Hurricane Rita. The Air Force evacuated roughly 700 residents who could not or did not escape. Evacuees were flown to one of eight different secure locations via Air Force C-5, C-17 and C-141 aircraft. Lackland Air Force Base, in San Antonio, is housing the greatest number of evacuees, officials said.
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The Air Force has flown a total of 61 aeromedical evacuation missions Sept. 23 and 74 aero-medical evacuation missions overall in response to Hurricane Rita. An additional nine aeromedical evacuation missions were planned for today, officials said.

Here are a couple of photo essays:

Lackland Helps Rita Evacuees
Ellington Field Operations

See this site for more news on military operations in the wake of the Gulf Coast hurricanes.