Diary of a mad hurricane: The 82nd Airborne—a waiting game
For several days as Hurricane Katrina first threatened and pounded the Gulf Coast, then flooded New Orleans, dozens of government agencies and private researchers helped predict, resist, and recover from the storm. In a series of timelines, U.S. News staffers detail the activities of:
FEMA officials: On paper, feds gave an upbeat analysis;
Climate researchers: Experts feared the worst;
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: 'It all started crashing pretty fast';
The Army's 82nd Airborne Division: A waiting game;
The Coast Guard: 'Hoisting up every vulnerable-looking thing;
The National Guard: 'We did respond with amazing speed';
State and local emergency officials: Getting through the storm;
and airborne storm chasers: A view from the eye.
Here, the Army's 82nd Airborne Division's story:
On Monday, August 29, Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, calls the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Navy heads and tells them to be ready to deploy troops and ships to the devastated region. The next day, the 82nd Airborne is alerted for possible action. The 82nd always has a battalion ready to deploy anywhere in the world in less than a day. The division's intelligence officers have already been monitoring the storm as it is developing in the Gulf, anticipating they may be called to help out in the aftermath of the hurricane. Since the division was already making plans, a battalion would have been ready to move as early as Tuesday, said Major Gen. Bill Caldwell, commander of the 82nd.
"We could have immediately responded within 18 hours," he said. "We could have come here, had we been asked, at any point."
Caldwell keeps a rucksack packed so he can move in a moment. Over the last 16 months, the 82nd has conducted three different emergency homeland defense exercises.
"The whole reason we [created] Northern Command is to help with disasters in America," Caldwell says. "We are a force of choice, ready to go, and we have the flexibility to do anything." Though the National Guard has more law enforcement training, Caldwell says the 82nd is able to bring a large, coherent force to a disaster area that has spent long hours working and training together as a team. "When you call in the 82nd Airborne Division, you bring someone who works together all the time and knows how each other operates," he says. "We can execute rapidly."
But throughout the week after Katrina's landfall, the call never comes to the 82nd. The National Guard is telling the Pentagon it had the situation under control. The Louisiana governor and military officials are squabbling over who should control the military forces in New Orleans. And Admiral Timothy Keating, head of Northern Command, is reluctant to use active duty troops. Still, it is apparent to the 82nd Airborne officials at Fort Bragg that they have skills that might prove useful. They stay on alert.
On Friday, September 2, Caldwell calls an emergency deployment readiness exercise. The scenario is a response to Hurricane Katrina. His commanders get out their maps, make out their plans and have their soldiers get ready to load the planes. From the beginning, Caldwell hopes he can turn the exercise into a real deployment midway through the drill. The president is visiting New Orleans, and Caldwell wants him to have the option to call for the 82nd and for his soldiers to run onto the C-17 cargo and troops transport planes.
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