[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 148 (Wednesday, October 5, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S6180]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          MAINE NATIONAL GUARD

  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I would like to bring to the attention of 
my colleagues this article from the Mountain Times in Killington, VT. 
The article highlights the outstanding work of the nearly 200 members 
of Maine National Guard's 133rd Engineer Battalion, headquartered in 
Gardiner, ME, which deployed to Vermont to help our neighbors deal with 
the destruction from Tropical Storm Irene. Senator Leahy has told me 
several times how grateful the people of Vermont are for the assistance 
and how impressed they are with the professionalism of the Maine 
National Guard members. All of us in Maine are extremely proud of their 
outstanding work helping those who needed it most. Mr. President, I ask 
unanimous consent that the following article be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                        Angels With Dirty Faces

                           (By Greg Crawford)

       Well, maybe their faces are clean, but the men and women of 
     the Maine National Guard's 133rd Engineer Battalion, 
     headquartered in Gardiner, Maine, and commanded by Lt. 
     Colonel Normand Michaud, sure got their boots muddy! And 
     despite modest denials, they are, indeed, angels, at least to 
     the grateful citizens of Stockbridge.
       Following the historic flooding caused by the torrential 
     rains of tropical storm Irene, the call went out to National 
     Guard units in areas not quite so devastated by the storm, 
     and they answered that call with incredible speed. Given the 
     complexity of the logistics involved, and that the behemoth 
     trucks essential to their work do not exactly zip over the 
     road, especially when they have to negotiate flood-ravaged 
     terrain, the fact that they managed to get here just a few 
     days after the flooding occurred is nothing short of amazing. 
     The 38-vehicle caravan took 16 hours to make the trip from 
     Belfast, Maine, about 40 miles east of Augusta, where much of 
     the equipment was stored.
       Something like a quarter of a mile of Vermont Route 107 
     between Bethel and Stockbridge was washed downstream. In some 
     places, the road hugged the near-vertical mountainsides with 
     the river right next to it. Following Sunday's deluge, the 
     river was rushing by at the foot of the mountain as if the 
     road had never been there at all.


    A National Guard truck unloads pallets of bottled water at the 
                     Stockbridge Elementary School

       But then the 133rd showed up, and things changes in a 
     hurry. Their first task upon arrival was to erect the tents 
     that would house the fifty-plus Guard members assigned to the 
     Route 107 site and others around Stockbridge. It was 
     fortunate that there was level ground beside Lambert's Power 
     Tools, directly adjacent to the damaged highway. Before they 
     could position the excavators, they had to build a dike to 
     keep the muddy waters of the not-so-White River out of the 
     area where their equipment would have to be situated. There's 
     very fine, muddy silt everywhere, and though they had a 
     couple of fair weather, the recent rains turned that silt 
     into a thick soup that would have brought mere mortals to a 
     standstill. But this is the 133rd Engineer Battalion. By 
     Wednesday morning, they had already managed to restore a 
     single, very rough lane where there had only been submerged 
     rubble. This was wet, dirty and dangerous work, but according 
     to Frank Lambert's daughter, one of the Guardswomen attached 
     to this unit commented that she'd rather be here in Vermont's 
     mud and rain than in Afghanistan. Small wonder. The 133rd has 
     lost members to IEDs in previous deployments to that war-torn 
     country.
       That single lane of 107 is still barely navigable, even by 
     4-wheel drive vehicles, so it is not open to traffic as yet. 
     But it is there. For that alone, 2nd Lieutenant Rand and the 
     men and women of the 133rd Engineer Battalion have earned the 
     undying gratitude of the residents of Stockbridge and the 
     neighboring towns that depend on that highway.


  A ``bucket brigade'' speeds the transfer of packaged bottled water 
                                indoors

       By the way, if anyone, Stockbridge resident or not, should 
     encounter a Guard member from the 133rd, or any other 
     National Guard unit here to help, tell them, thank you. SPC 
     Allison Pelletier of the 133rd's Public Affairs Office tells 
     me that a much-appreciated expression of gratitude would be 
     coffee and food. The MREs they're living on are better than 
     they used to be . . . but they're still MREs. Some Dunkin' 
     Donuts would go over pretty big, too, I'll bet. Hint, hint.
       There are plenty of angels right here in Stockbridge, too. 
     So many, in fact, that you can't swing a cat without smacking 
     a Good Samaritan. My cat hates it when I do that.
       Willis and Harry Whitaker, Mark Pelletier, Dave Brown, 
     Peter Steibris, and God-only-knows how many others put in 
     unbelievable hours making roads passable for emergency 
     vehicles. They also reinforced the damaged abutment of 
     Gaysville's 1929-vintage iron bridge.
       Sid Hotchkiss and the McCullough brothers from Bethel have 
     been working on the monster hole in River Road with 
     bulldozers and an excavator.
       Barbara Vellturo, Stephen Farrington, Cheryl Rivers, and 
     others have slaved away over hot computers ferreting out 
     information about the status of roads and bridges in 
     surrounding towns and getting that information to Stockbridge 
     residents by e-mail and postings to a Google Group called 
     Stockbridge Open Forum. Paul Buckley has scouted all those 
     roads daily to confirm the accuracy of the information.
       Mark Doughty has coordinated meetings all over town to keep 
     people up to date and convey residents' concerns to town 
     officials.
       Janet Whitaker has maintained a steady flow of information 
     from a multitude of sources to keep the group forum's 
     information current.
       Jenny Harris has made innumerable runs to area pharmacies 
     for prescriptions so residents in need don't run out of 
     essential medications, and Mary Ellen Dorman, who knows 
     everyone in town, has seen to it that they were all delivered 
     to the right people.
       Josh and Michelle Merrill, two former Gaysville residents 
     now living in Rutland, are the people who, with the help of 
     the Chittenden Fire Department and the Stockbridge Fire 
     Department, got the ball rolling for the food shelves at the 
     Stockbridge Elementary School and on the Stockbridge Common. 
     Fifteen volunteers give of their time to organize and 
     dispense all the items that fill the school's multi-purpose 
     room.
       Every day, there are people going out of their way to help 
     someone. They neither expect, nor ask for, recognition; they 
     just do what they know is right and move on. Makes it hard to 
     catch 'em in the act.
       Several people whose homes were damaged or destroyed, and 
     those who simply can't get to their homes, have been taken in 
     by generous and thoughtful neighbors. Furniture and 
     appliances have been donated, or at least promised, to people 
     in the process of rebuilding. Special efforts have been made 
     to care for elderly, ill, or disabled residents, including 
     helicopter and ambulance evacuations.
       Were it possible to recount them all, the incidents of 
     selfless generosity and assistance given to those less 
     fortunate would fill this paper and two or three issues to 
     come. Only a few have been mentioned here by name, but many 
     more deserve recognition. However, I feel quite certain they 
     are all content with the knowledge that they did some good.

                          ____________________