Everyday heroes

While mother Oprah is gushing over her sociopathic author (and going to tell us what books to read), the everyday heros of the National Guard continue to be there when things get bad...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2006 – Soldiers from the California National Guard helped rescue torrential flood victims last weekend while working in tandem with civilian firefighters and swift-water rescuers.

Capt. David Marciano of the Russian River Fire Department in Guerneville, Calif., said the guardsmen were "indispensable."

"There's no other way to describe what they did," he said. "We don't know how we'd have managed without them."

Northern California was wracked with weekend flooding that threatened life and property. Water crested to nearly six feet deep, rendering cars useless and roads non-traversable, Marciano noted.

California National Guard headquarters was placed on alert Dec. 29; individual guardsmen then were called up late the following day. By the morning of Dec. 31, said Army Staff Sgt. James Saleda, he and his fellow soldiers from the 579th Engineering Battalion in Santa Rosa had left to provide emergency services and other life-saving assistance to Californians trapped by the floods.

"Disaster relief is one of the California Army National Guard's primary functions," said Saleda, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the operation. "The troops on the ground worked long hours in arduous and dangerous conditions without complaint. In fact, the troops were volunteering for any mission that came up," he said....

(heads up from CampKatrinaBlog)...