When the call came out to help their neighbors, the Arkansas Army National Guard and the Air National Guard responded.
Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in late August 2005 and became one of the deadliest and most destructive natural disasters in U.S. history.
The eye of the hurricane made landfall near Buras-Triumph, La., about 60 miles south of New Orleans as a Category 3 hurricane, with sustained winds of 125 mph. The loss of marshland allowed the storm surge to overwhelm the levees and floodwalls, especially in New Orleans. The massive flooding submerged about 80% of the city and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
Katrina caused over 1,800 deaths, destroyed or damaged more than a million homes, and inflicted an estimated $125 billion in total damages. The disaster overwhelmed local and federal emergency response systems, prompting one of the largest domestic military mobilizations in U.S. history.
The mobilization provided authorities in the Louisiana Parishes a needed reprieve to get back on their feet.
“Local authorities are overwhelmed by this scale of a disaster or even something like a tornado,” said Col. Joe Lynch. “Our presence allows them to increase their capability to do their job, whether it’s just us blocking an intersection, providing water, or keeping watch over a neighborhood or section of a town.”
After the storm, the forward base engaged with local mayors. Meetings were held with utility companies and police. Lynch assessed reporters daily to determine if there was a specific item to discuss, to clean up areas, or to clear the entrance to a park. They provided advice and even removed furniture from buildings damaged by flooding so that FEMA could haul it away.
“We were later helping the outlier communities. The ones that couldn’t snap back because they lacked the resources or the personnel,” Lynch said.
Answering the Call
“We were the third busiest wing,” said Ret. Col. Paul Jara, who was a major at the time with the 189th Airlift Wing out of Camp Robinson near Little Rock. “We flew into a naval base, and when we got off the plane, it was a Who’s Who of C-130s from various states. It was a ballet of forklifts, equipment going on and off of aircraft. You knew you had to get out of the way. It was mesmerizing to watch. It was an amazing view of America. We used that picture a lot. I wish I could find it again.”
The 142nd artillery unit was in the process of adding cannon-fired artillery alongside the rocket-fired vehicles, so Ret. Capt. Ross Brashears remained behind in Fort Smith to provide support to process the evacuees from Louisiana.
The old Fort Smith Armory was opened to serve as the central processing stage. Afterward, the evacuees were transported to Fort Chaffee for temporary housing. The base could hold about 5,000 soldiers at a single time, but 9,000 people came through the base for a few weeks.
“Our mission was to process the evacuees, so we could move them somewhere else they could live,” Brashears said. “It was a coordinated effort between local law enforcement, Chaffee’s forest and game wardens, soldiers, and some of those were also in the guard. It was a good, non-standard mission that we were able to bring all those other agencies together to help them.”
Brashears added that it may not have seemed efficient from the evacuees’ point of view, as they were moved onto a C-130, then bused to the armory, and subsequently bused to Fort Chaffee, where they were set up with the necessary commodities and received medical care. However, they processed 9,000 evacuees in three days, and within less than two weeks, all of them were relocated to more permanent housing.
Col. Lynch, who served as the intelligence officer for the unit in Baghdad and during the Hurricane Katrina mission, was at home in Shreveport with his family. He trained with the Arkansas Guard unit in Warren, Ark. Lynch was getting back into his regular life and preparing to make a trip with his family to San Antonio. He was keeping an eye on the storm that hit the southern part of Louisiana.
Lynch received a call on Tuesday before Labor Day (Aug. 30, the day after landfall) from an administrative officer stating that the 39th Infantry Brigade was heading to New Orleans and that he was to link up with his unit as it prepared to convoy to Little Rock.
“If you’re the intelligence officer, your job is to prepare information for the commanders. From my experience in Baghdad, one of the things I knew I would be doing was looking for maps,” Lynch said. “I stopped at every Walmart between Shreveport before I connected with my unit and cleaned out each one of any Rand-McNally map so that we would have a reference.”
The maps paid off.
“It turned out to be a good purchase. It assisted in planning operations, looking at the terrain,” said Lynch. “I’m a map nut. Always have been.”
Jara stated that it was rare for the Air Guard to respond to a domestic mission, but when the call came in, it was all hands on deck.
“We didn’t know what was needed for a domestic response. Maj. Wes Nichols had some knowledge about what kind of assets may be needed, and we were able to send those down before landfall,” said Jara. “We had returned from Iraq the year before, and one of my guys, a former airman, arrived and began loading the trailers. I thought it was a huge testament. He wanted to help our Louisiana brothers and sisters.”
Nichols is now a brigadier general and served as the interim commander for the 188th at Ebbing ANGB in 2023.
Into the Unknown
Going into New Orleans, the unit didn’t know what to expect. The rumors coming out of the city painted a chaotic situation. Stories of lawlessness were sensationalized. The police lost control, gangs were roaming around, cars were on fire, and looting. During a press conference, then Gov. Kathleen Blanco implied that the Arkansas troops had just come back from Iraq, and that they were “well-trained, experienced, battle-tested, and under my orders to restore order in the streets. These troops know how ot shoot to kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary, and I expect they will.”
Lynch said they never received shoot-to-kill orders, but in their minds, they were going down to restore order. He suspected that the local authorities in Louisiana and New Orleans were tired of the situation. However, the unit wasn’t going to let its guard down.
“We had on all our combat gear, vest, and helmet. We thought it was going to be rough. We thought we were going to have to engage in urban combat, use force,” said Lynch. “Concerns of the civilian population were going through our minds as well. It was just an unknown.”
Everything that followed happened fast. The unit was focused on preparing for the trip. No one knew what was happening in New Orleans except what was reported on the news. They gathered food and arranged for the most suitable mode of transportation to transport the troops, their gear, and their supplies to their southern neighbor.
“We didn’t know how we were going to get everything down there, and we had to leave that day,” Lynch said. “I’m in charge of 300 men. Get them to the right truck and the right highway. We were going to be the first ones on the ground for the first couple of days, and not knowing what’s ahead.”
The Convention Center
When the unit arrived in New Orleans, they began at a parking garage to devise a plan. They still had no idea of the situation they were going into. The unit commanders decided to proceed with the entire convoy and secure the convention center.
“We talked through the things we normally do. We’re good at planning. That’s what we’re trained for,” said Lynch.
A convoy unit from the Louisiana Guard was there, but their driver, who had heard about the lawlessness, didn’t want to go to the convention center. The Arkansas unit followed a police escort. They turned a corner and went about eight to 10 blocks toward the aquarium.
People were milling around. A couple of non-functional police cars littered the street. The police escort pulled back. The Arkansas unit turned onto another street and reached their objective. Lynch and his driver exchanged a glance. There was no one else ahead of them. They were the point. Lynch got the convoy in place. They dispersed food and water.
“When the people saw the military, anyone who would have caused trouble backed away,” Lynch said. “We were moving people out of the way, pulling in a truck, and starting to help people. The situation was fairly calm. The people were cooperative. We thought we would be involved in urban combat, but it turned into an urban rescue.
“You can tell that they were appreciative that we were there. They felt like they’d been let down, but the police and other services were overwhelmed, and that’s why we were there.”
Mirroring Baghdad
Lynch would spend his days in New Orleans as a liaison to the police department, meeting with them twice a day to discuss current situations and coordinate efforts.
He would also meet up with other organizations that came into New Orleans to help.
“People came in so fast, I would link up and establish rapport with them. We had units from all over,” Lynch said. “One came down from Connecticut for three days. An Oklahoma unit showed up for one day, and I knew some of them. It was constantly changing. Shaking hands. That’s part of what we did. It illustrated the scale of the response.”
Lynch stayed for thirty days, and others remained up to six months. When the commanders asked for 100 volunteers, it didn’t take long to fill out the roster. Lynch could see how it was leveling out after a couple of weeks, as local officials and authorities were able to get things under control.
“In Baghdad, we were trying to get a country back on its feet, and I spent time interfacing with the local council to collaborate on improving the city, whether it’s the schools or utilities. Once it was secure, it became a rescue mission. It was similar to what we experienced in New Orleans in that regard.”
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Moving Forward
In the aftermath, improvements were made and lessons were learned. More importantly, those who were part of the mission to help felt like they contributed.
“All the training, equipment, leadership, trades, and engineers were used in direct support for American citizens on the worst day of their lives,” said Jara, who was a new Guardsman at the time of the Katrina mission. “The things we learned, I learned, during Katrina, shaped my future. I got a master’s in emergency management. I performed emergency work in both theory and practice, and passed that knowledge along to many other Arkansas guardsmen and recruits. I got the most satisfaction from supporting a domestic mission in Arkansas or Louisiana.”
Before Katrina, the Fort Chaffee barracks needed to be upgraded, but the process was slow, even to get started. There was no air conditioning in the barracks. That may be part of the military training process, but not for refugees from New Orleans seeking a brief respite from the early September humidity in Arkansas.
After Katrina, the barracks began to be upgraded. It took 20 years for all to be completed, but the process is about to start again.
Cell phone reception was scarce enough on the base that officers couldn’t get a signal from their own offices. A temporary tower was erected and later replaced by a permanent one.
Rep. Steve Womack retired from serving with the Arkansas Army National Guard in Little Rock in 2009. While he wasn’t part of the unit sent to Louisiana, he has been a strong proponent for the National Guard and its mission.
“From pre-landfall planning to executing one of the largest evacuation efforts, Task Force Razorback answered the call with excellence and without hesitation,” Womack said. “Our guardsmen did not just demonstrate operational excellence in their response to Hurricane Katrina. They showed immense humanity and empathy in the face of chaos.”
Womack added that the storm and its aftermath underscored the necessity of having a modern National Guard capable of responding to national emergencies and functioning as an operational force. He said that the National Guard component offered the best return on investment for the Department of Defense. Womack continues to support the effort to ensure the National Guard is equipped and funded to meet the ever-evolving challenges it faces.
“Today, the Guard remains an elite force, not only vital in responding to domestic emergencies, but also serving as an indispensable warfighting unit, protecting Americans from an increasingly complex global security landscape,” Womack said.
Before Katrina, commanders couldn’t lead both federal and state units. The laws were amended to permit dual-status commanders. Lynch is one for Arkansas. He added that the lessons learned have helped with future responses to natural disasters.
“It was my first time to help with a domestic operation, and it happened to be the biggest in my lifetime. We trained and plan for such events, but until it happens, you don’t know what the response will look like,” said Lynch. “It was on-the-job training. We learned how infrastructure works at the federal, state, and local levels. I’m appreciative of the people who continue to train for a cloudy day, when it inevitably arrives.
“We jump in when things are at their worst. We’ve done that three times since then. We leave our families, our jobs, and hop in a Humvee. It’s not easy to do, but we practice and learn the skills to help, so that others can do their jobs and help other people get their lives back together.”
By The Numbers
Arkansas Army and Air National Guard Hurricane Katrina Domestic Mission
More than 1,800 Arkansas National Guardsmen from the Army and Air divisions were activated for Hurricane Katrina support. More than 500 were at Fort Chaffee, while many others were on the ground in Louisiana.
Opened 59 armories in 58 counties to register incoming evacuees from Louisiana and Mississippi.
Rescued more than 750 patients and hospital staff from the VA Medical Center in New Orleans.
About 300 members of the 39th Infantry Brigade provided support at the Superdome and New Orleans Convention Center.
Supplied over 5,000 blankets, 1,200 cots, and 26,000 MREs (Meals, Ready to Eat).
Delivered 59 tons of cargo by air from the 189th Airlift Wing to the New Orleans area.
Evacuated more than 620 individuals by air and flew nearly 60 patients to safety.
Processed 9,000 evacuees over three days at Fort Chaffee.
More than 30 non-military official agencies (police, fire, first responders, etc.) participated in the processing.
Nearly 20 social service entities (Red Cross, Salvation Army, United Way, etc.) assisted at Fort Chaffee.
More than 1,000 volunteers (including general support, medical, etc.) also assisted at Fort Chaffee.
Roughly 20 tractor-trailer loads of donated goods were provided (food, water, clothing, toys, diapers, etc.)
This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Arkansas Guard’s role in Katrina response recalled 20 years later