As you may have heard on the news, North Carolina took a major hit with tornadoes last week. In case you haven’t seen anything on the news about what our troops are doing back home, here are a few images that tell the story better than I can.
Approximately 50 soldiers from the U.S Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg volunteered to assist in the clean-up of a Fayetteville neighborhood, April 21, that had been damaged by tornadoes in the area. More than 60 tornadoes touched down across the state of North Carolina, April 16, damaging more than 400 homes and destroying more than 60. The group of soldiers spent the morning sorting through the debris and placing it in piles for pick-up by the city. The group was mainly comprised of recent Special Forces Qualification Course graduates awaiting assignment to their following unit. Residents provided yard equipment and once the debris was sorted, the soldiers began working on the landscape. Many homes in the relatively new subdivision were reduced to rubble. The normally well-manicured lawns looked like they were strewn with toothpicks, as splintered wood and roofing shingles lay spread across the grass. Many of the soldiers conducting the clean-up had prior experience with natural disaster recovery, such as Sgt. Luis Gutierrez, a recent SFQC graduate who was sent to assist in the clean-up in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “It just gives you a good feeling to be able to help out in a time of need.”
All photos taken by SSG Russell Klika.