[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.
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