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(strong winds)

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- People living on Florida's panhandle

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could be just about 48
hours away from a hurricane.

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- It's expected to make
landfall as a category three.

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- 150mph winds that is seven
miles shy of being a Cat Five

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Cat Five, Cat Five (soft music).

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- [Narrator] October 10th,
2018 Hurricane Michael

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smashes into the Florida Panhandle,

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leaving little standing in it's path.

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(soft music)

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Tyndall AFB, a key part
of the network of bases

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protecting the continental
US, took a direct hit.

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(soft music)

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The storm peeled off roofs,
tore down trees and powerlines

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and caused significant
structural damage to buildings.

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(soft music)

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- [Amy] As you go, from the airport

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to where the base is, it got
more and more devastation.

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Trees down, buildings destroyed,

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there were piles of debris everywhere,

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medians in the road were
stacked up with debris.

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The base was eerily quiet.

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- [Levi] The closer we got to
the base, the more we realized

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this was worse than we
thought it was gonna be.

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- [Pat] We pull up to
Tyndall Air Force Base

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and it's just complete devastation.

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I mean, I couldn't believe it
in my eyes, you see pictures,

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you hear descriptions,
but until you're there,

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walking the ground,

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you don't have a true
appreciation of the devastation

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Hurricane Michael caused.

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- [Ross] I grew up in Louisiana,
with lot's of hurricanes,

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and so this was so much more
devastating than anything

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I experienced as I was growing up.

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- [Narrator] Before Michael made landfall,

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the Air Force Installation and
Mission Support Center began

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response planning in San Antonio.

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As soon as the storm passed,

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AFIMSC began receiving requests.

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- [Ross] We figured out that
they had an immediate need

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for MREs and some sort of
follow-on food service capability.

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So, MREs went in there,
as soon as the base

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was able to receive it, which
was just a couple of days.

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And then, within a few weeks after that,

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they were able to contract out
for an actual field kitchen

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and they were feeding hot
meals to the entire populace.

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Every single one of our hard
billet lodging operations,

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they were all damaged,
some worse than others,

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some were completely destroyed.

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So, the initial clean
up teams stayed in tents

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and that went on for months
while they were trying to bring

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all the rooms back.

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- [Jason] There was no fence,
there was no perimeter fence.

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I think it was ACC tapped
into one of their resources,

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which is the 820th, who
drove from Valdosta, GA

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with 150 or more, maybe 200,
cops to secure the area,

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to kinda reestablish that security.

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And then we took the post, we
went and made sure that those

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sky watch towers were working,

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that the troops knew how to work 'em.

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- [Narrator] In order to,
assess damages and to make

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determinations on facilities,

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to preserve as much as possible
and to clean up debris,

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on October 19th AFIMSC
sent their Vice Commander

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to lead Task Force Phoenix.

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- [Pat] We had the ability to
see change each and every day.

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It was just unbelievable,
the amount of work

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that we're accomplishing.

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Perhaps the most amazing
thing was the diversity

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of the task force.

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We had soldiers, we had
sailors, we had active duty

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and reserve, we had folks
from across the civil engineer

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community - both Prime
Beef as well as Red Horse.

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But that wasn't just it, it
wasn't just an engineer force,

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we also had folks from
the acquisition community,

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from the force support services community,

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we had folks from the resource management,

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the comptroller community.

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And they all came together

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to form up about a 112 person
team, joint service team,

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to get after this assess, determine,

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preserve, and clear mission.

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- [Levi] To see the amount
of progress we made,

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in the two months we
were, that I was, there

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it was an incredible, it
was a very proud moment

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as an Air Force member,
to see that many people

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come together and get such
devastation cleared out

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and get the mission
going, it was impressive.

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(soft music)

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- [Narrator] It's been a
year and the progress made,

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with the resources available,
has been remarkable.

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- [Patrice] We were on
it, pretty immediately.

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We've had quite a bit of
clean-up done, on the base,

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there is quite a bit of
demolition that's happened,

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that demolition clearly needs to occur

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before we can start
building new construction.

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- [Tom] You know, the
first four or five months,

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after the hurricane, it
was pretty hard to imagine

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that this base was going
to recover quickly.

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But every day, it's gotten
a little bit better.

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If you left here, eight
or nine months ago,

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and came back today, you would be shocked

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at how much better the base
looks, and the community.

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- [Brian] In that year,
we've restored nearly

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all of the mission sets,
that we had on the base,

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prior to the storm hitting.

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We've been able to bring back
about 80% of all the people

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that we had on the base.

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- [Amy] In November when I was
down there, it was very dark.

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No street lights, buildings
didn't have exterior lights,

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it was like you were out
in the middle of nowhere.

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By January, things were
starting to look better.

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By April, the trailers
had started coming in

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and most people were back to work

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and it was almost back
to being a normal base.

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(soft music)

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- [Brian] Air Force IMSC

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and Air Force Civil Engineering Center

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have sent, to Tyndall, their champions.

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We get all of the expertise,

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that the Air Force has to offer,

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to ensure that we do this rebuild correct.

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- [Tom] You know the Air Force has made

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a really strong commitment

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to build Tyndall Air Force Base.

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Not only as a base, but
as the base of the future.

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And they've sent us the best planners,

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engineers and experts.

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Subject matter experts
that have really focused

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on what this should look
like and how the community

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can interface with the rebuild.

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I'm very very impressed
with all that has been done,

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by the Air Force and
with AFCEC and AFIMSC,

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to make sure the best
experts are here on site.

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- [Amy] We're doing a 30
to 40 year plan at Tyndall,

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over the next five years.

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So, it was incredible foresight
on our leadership to say,

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"Hey, let's take advantage of
this opportunity to do some"

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not just the base of the future

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but also the realignment of missions.

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- [Levi] The silver lining,
to what happened out there,

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is we get to build the base of the future,

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it's not a complete clean
slate, but it's close.

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And we get to build what
the next generation of bases

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should look like and
we're gonna do it right

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from the ground up.

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- [Pat] The landscapes changing,

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it's getting better day-by-day,

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we're not there yet.

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And we're gonna be able to bring back

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a strong fighting platform

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to tomorrow's standards,
for the next fight.

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Tyndall Air Force Base
is a place that we can go

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to take care of our own.

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So we're invested,
everybody who's been through

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Tyndall Air Force Base is
curious how it's going today

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and how can I help for tomorrow.

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So, yes we're going through
a fight today at Tyndall,

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to rebuild, and we're gonna
continue to make that fight

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but knowing that it's gonna
pay dividends in the future

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for the Air Force's
capability and capacity

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to take the war to the enemy.

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- [Brian] We had our
air field runway open,

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less than 24 hours,

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after the storm passed, we were flying,

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conducting our flying
operations, in and and around,

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Tyndall Air Force Base
very soon, within a month,

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after the storm.

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We were hosting exercises
on the base, aircraft coming

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in from other bases around
our Air Force to train

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at Tyndall, in less than
two months after the storm.

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And that is because of the
sense of purpose of our Airmen,

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who know their mission,
who own their mission

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and are resilient in
getting that mission done.

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We are in this together and
we could not rebuild the base

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if not for that tremendous support,

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that direct involvement,
those boots on the ground

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from AFCEC and Air Force IMSC.

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(soft music)