Diary of a mad hurricane: The 82nd Airborne—a waiting game
"My whole purpose for calling the exercise Friday was that in my heart the president was going to come down here and see the devastation and then he would announce at 4 p.m., before he left, that he was calling out federal troops—which would mean us, in my mind. I thought I would be able to tell the joint staff we are boarding airplanes right now, we are flying. . . . That is what we wanted to do for the president."
The call does not come. Caldwell calls the exercise to a halt on Friday evening. But he tells his soldiers to keep their gear ready. And he is right. The next morning, the word finally comes.
At 10 o'clock Saturday morning, September 3, Caldwell is dressed in his PT clothes, sitting on his back porch and sipping a cup of coffee as he chats with his wife. Then his phone rings.
"Hey, sir, have you seen the news?" asks one of Caldwell's deputies. No, the general responds. "The president was just on the news and said the 82nd is deploying to Louisiana," says the other officer. Caldwell calls in to his operation center, which is just then getting the official word, and puts the 82nd's gears in motion once again. Soon after, an official from the Joint Staff calls to ask if the 82nd can be airborne in six hours. The answer, Caldwell says, is a definitive yes. By 4 p.m. Caldwell and his team are boarding a C-17 that has been diverted on its way home from Afghanistan. Fifteen minutes later the 82nd Airborne is in the sky headed to Louisiana.
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