US soldier returns to Haiti to help, finds family
By KEVIN MAURER
The Associated Press
Monday, January 18, 2010; 12:00 PM
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Junior Florestal left Haiti when he was 13 for a better life in the United States. He long promised to return, but it took an earthquake to bring him back.
"I'd always wanted to come," the 33-year-old U.S. Army staff sergeant said Sunday. "But I didn't want to come in this way."
Florestal is one of at least three Haitian-American paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne Division helping get sorely needed food, water and supplies to survivors of the magnitude-7.0 earthquake that shattered this capital city last Tuesday. His unit learned it would leave the following day, giving Florestal hope he could both bring aid and track down dozens of relatives living in Port-au-Prince and in villages surrounding the capital.
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US soldier returns to Haiti to help, finds family
Monday, January 18, 2010
Retired U.S. Army communications specialist was in Haiti when quake hit
Haiti Quake Survivor: From Heaven to Hell and Back
Mary Winter
Copy Editor
Posted:
01/18/10
Filed Under:Woman Up, Haiti
Fernand Sajous starred this week in his own version of "The Road," a movie about a father-and-son's terrifying travels through a post-apocalyptic world. But two big differences: Sajous' hellish odyssey took place in Haiti, not Hollywood, and no scriptwriters were needed to beef up the story line.
Sajous, a 56-year-old retired U.S. Army communications specialist, was driving home from the airport in Port- au-Prince around 4:50 p.m. Tuesday when the crushing earthquake hit. The next 60 hours was a nightmarish, 200-mile road trip from the north side of the island to the south that he survived thanks to providence, luck, military training, his 2008 Isuzu pickup truck and his 9mm pistol.
"I just want to cry, but I can't even cry," Sajous told his daughter Thursday. In the previous 48 hours, he had pulled his mother from under the rubble of her home in a destroyed neighborhood in Port-au-Prince and had seen the quake's toll on his 45-year-old sister: a broken leg and a severe burn covering 60 percent of her face. Those traumas -- along with the astounding number of corpses and desperate people in the streets, the thugs Sajous had no doubt would kill him to get his truck, and the smell of decaying flesh -- shook Sajous to the core. He was exhausted and possibly in shock.
From Heaven to Hell and Back
Mary Winter
Copy Editor
Posted:
01/18/10
Filed Under:Woman Up, Haiti
Fernand Sajous starred this week in his own version of "The Road," a movie about a father-and-son's terrifying travels through a post-apocalyptic world. But two big differences: Sajous' hellish odyssey took place in Haiti, not Hollywood, and no scriptwriters were needed to beef up the story line.
Sajous, a 56-year-old retired U.S. Army communications specialist, was driving home from the airport in Port- au-Prince around 4:50 p.m. Tuesday when the crushing earthquake hit. The next 60 hours was a nightmarish, 200-mile road trip from the north side of the island to the south that he survived thanks to providence, luck, military training, his 2008 Isuzu pickup truck and his 9mm pistol.
"I just want to cry, but I can't even cry," Sajous told his daughter Thursday. In the previous 48 hours, he had pulled his mother from under the rubble of her home in a destroyed neighborhood in Port-au-Prince and had seen the quake's toll on his 45-year-old sister: a broken leg and a severe burn covering 60 percent of her face. Those traumas -- along with the astounding number of corpses and desperate people in the streets, the thugs Sajous had no doubt would kill him to get his truck, and the smell of decaying flesh -- shook Sajous to the core. He was exhausted and possibly in shock.
From Heaven to Hell and Back
Floridians welcomed to Texas by freezing temperatures
Florida Army National Guard Soldiers from the 2-124th Inf. Regt., arrive at Fort Hood Jan. 6. The 2-124th is part of the 53rd Inf. BCT from Florida that will train at North Fort Hood for the next two months. Chaplain candidate John Olagbemi (foreground) and Sgt. Maj. Ralph Hernandez, from the Hood Mobilization Brigade, welcome the Soldiers as they arrive at Robert Gray Army Airfield. Gloria Harris, Hood Mobilization Brigade
Floridians welcomed to Texas by freezing temperatures, mobilization brigade
By Gloria Harris, Hood Mobilization Brigade
January 14, 2010 News
Approximately 2,600 Florida Army National Guard Soldiers are at Fort Hood training for their upcoming deployment to Iraq and Kuwait.
The 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team arrived in waves as Texas temperatures plummeted last week. The first group, about 600 Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment from South Florida, stepped off airplanes Tuesday at Robert Gray Army Airfield. They were immediately followed by the 2nd Battalion, 124th Inf. Regt. from Central Florida; the 1st Battalion, 153rd Cavalry Regiment from the Florida Panhandle; the 2nd Battalion, 116th Field Artillery Regiment from Lakeland, Florida; and the 53rd Brigade Support Battalion, 53rd Special Troops Battalion and Headquarters and Headquarters Company.
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http://www.forthoodsentinel.com/story.php?id=2879
LT deployed to Afghanistan, hears of family in Haiti
Kirsty Wigglesworth / The Associated Press Lt. Ramses Brunache, attached to the 97th Military Police Battalion out of Fort Riley, Kansas, was born in Haiti and is trying to get redeployed to assist in the earthquake-torn country.
Haiti native in Afghan war wants chance to help
By Heidi Vogt - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Jan 18, 2010 8:29:39 EST
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Haitian-American Lt. Ramses Brunache was supposed to be the one in danger in Afghanistan. Now his sister is dead, his homeland is broken and he’s trying to return to help save Haiti.
Brunache found out about Tuesday’s earthquake in a 3 a.m. phone call from his wife at the base where he’s stationed in dusty Kandahar province, the Taliban’s southern heartland. He’s been here since July as a communications officer with the 97th Military Police Battalion out of Fort Riley, Kansas.
“She told me something happened in Haiti and my sister is not going to make it,” he said.
His wife lives in Atlanta and the only information she had at that point was from a text message saying that his sister, Immacula, and her three young daughters had been inside their house in Port-au-Prince when it collapsed. Her 12-year-old son was the only one who made it out.
Brunache went straight to the base’s Internet cafe and spent hours scouring news sites for details. He watched the death toll rise from hundreds to thousands from the magnitude-7.0 quake.
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Balad burn pit harmed troops living 1 mile away
Balad burn pit harmed troops living 1 mile away
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jan 18, 2010 16:10:11 EST
As Wendy McBreairty hiked up a 20-foot bluff in her hometown of Cheyenne, Wyo., her thigh muscles felt heavy, as if she had been climbing for hours.
She breathed deeply, trying to fill her lungs but, as usual, she felt as if she could not get enough of the clear, cold air. Fatigue overwhelmed her, just as it does every other day of her life.
The 32-year-old Air National Guard staff sergeant sat on a rock, leaned toward the setting sun, and pondered her future.
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Balad burn pit harmed troops living 1 mile away
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jan 18, 2010 16:10:11 EST
As Wendy McBreairty hiked up a 20-foot bluff in her hometown of Cheyenne, Wyo., her thigh muscles felt heavy, as if she had been climbing for hours.
She breathed deeply, trying to fill her lungs but, as usual, she felt as if she could not get enough of the clear, cold air. Fatigue overwhelmed her, just as it does every other day of her life.
The 32-year-old Air National Guard staff sergeant sat on a rock, leaned toward the setting sun, and pondered her future.
read more here
Balad burn pit harmed troops living 1 mile away
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