BY DALE GREER
123RD AIRLIFT WING
WARFIELD — Airmen and Soldiers from the Kentucky National Guard evacuated 296 residents from two housing complexes surrounded by floodwaters Monday in Martin County.
The troops, including Airmen from the Kentucky Air Guard’s 123rd Special Tactics Squadron here, airlifted the residents to Big Sandy Regional Airport in Debord aboard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters from the Indiana Army National Guard and the Kentucky Army National Guard’s 63rd Theater Aviation Brigade.
A Contingency Response team from the Kentucky Air National Guard also stood up a passenger terminal to process evacuees as they arrived at the airport and assisted Kentucky State Police with transporting them to a shelter at Inez Elementary School.
“We have long had the best National Guard in the country, and today they proved it once again,” Gov. Andy Beshear said. “We are grateful for the Airmen and Soldiers, as well as the Kentucky State Police Troopers, who stepped up to rescue 296 Kentuckians.
“This rescue mission added to the more than 1,000 Kentuckians who have been rescued by our Guard members and with the assistance of KSP and other local, state and federal partners. We are so proud of all of you and so thankful these families are now safe.”
Flooding across Kentucky over the past three days has claimed at least 11 lives so far and closed more than 300 roads.
The Kentucky Guard currently has more than 170 Soldiers and Airmen on duty for flood relief. Of these, 30 are from the Louisville-based Kentucky Air National Guard. They include 16 Airmen from the 123rd Special Tactics Squadron who specialize in search-and-rescue and air traffic control and eight Airmen from the 123rd Contingency Response Group, who specialize in airfield operations.
Both Air Guard units are well-versed in emergency-response operations. The 123rd Special Tactics Squadron has deployed multiple times for natural disasters, including major flooding in Eastern Kentucky in 2022. That team of Airmen conducted dozens of missions responsible for evacuating scores of Kentuckians.
The 123rd Contingency Response Group was instrumental in orchestrating the arrival of 11,000 refugees from Afghanistan in 2021 as part of Operations Allies Refuge/Allies Welcome.
National Guard forces will remain on duty to assist state and local officials for as long as needed, said Kentucky’s adjutant general, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Haldane Lamberton.
“It is very much a collaborative effort,” Lamberton said. “It’s not just any one entity or any one resource, but folks coming together to work together, whatever the need.”