An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Home : News : Article View
NEWS | Feb. 2, 2010

Kansas civil engineers build hospital in Haiti

By Tech. Sgt. Emily Alley Kansas National Guard

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, - The bright clothing, smiles and conversation could be taking place in any hospital lobby in the world. Patients are being admitted, treated and released.

But a flurry of French and the grinding of a helicopter nearby betray the reality - this is Haiti.

A brutal sun burns over the tent, while the floor is dust and rock. The patients are earthquake survivors, who have just been flown from the USNS Comfort, the Navy's 1000-bed floating hospital that has been deployed here. A handful of Navy translators are helping them to find rides back to their families.

The Comfort is working at its full operational capacity for the first time in its service, and it would take a hundred more ships to treat all the estimated wounded in Haiti, officials said.

To help relieve the stress and suffering, civil engineers from the Kansas Air National Guard are working to expand one of the medical triage facilities in Port-au-Prince by assembling an Expeditionary Medical Support (EMEDS) hospital.

With the EMEDS in place, medics will be able to ease the pressure from the Comfort by performing minor surgery and 24-hour operations without transporting patients to the Comfort.

The Guardsmen are also building a helicopter landing pad to help transport more severely injured patients to and from the ship.

"I will take my hat off to the Air Force, who has done a great job since the day they got here," said Lt. Commander Robert Propes, liaison for the Comfort. "If there's minor surgery, (the patients) can get it here instead of the ship."

the end of January, the engineers had set up air conditioned tents and plan to eventually provide showers and latrines, which have been a luxury for relief workers. There is an informal consensus at the Port-au-Prince airport that the Kansas Air National Guardsmen are already heroes for bringing those facilities.

The civil engineers could complain about the cramped living quarters, lack of showers and long workdays. They taste the dust, they wear the sun - everyone has some severity of sunburn.

But it's hard to complain when only a few feet from their camp is the city of Port-au-Prince, where earthquake survivors must endure similar conditions. At least the Guardsmen know they have a home to go back to.

There are 40 members of the 190th Civil Engineering Squadron from Topeka, Kan., and five members of the 184th Civil Engineering Squadron from Wichita, Kan., deployed here to build infrastructure for sustained operations in Haiti.

Many of the Guardsmen were training at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when the earthquake struck and deployed to Haiti about two weeks later. The deployment is scheduled to last for four months.

 

 

Related Articles
Alaska Army National Guard Chief Warrant Officer 2 David Berg, a UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter pilot, assigned to A Company, 1-168th General Support Aviation Battalion, conducts flight operations over Southeast Alaska near Juneau, Jan. 24, 2025. The Juneau-based Black Hawk aircrew conducts their federal mission training requirements and, when available, can respond to emergency requests by the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center or the State Emergency Operations Center.
Alaska Army National Guard Conducts Medevac Mission
By Dana Rosso, | June 5, 2025
JUNEAUA, Alaska – A UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter assigned to A Company, 1-168th General Support Aviation Battalion, transported a patient from Skagway to Juneau June 3, following a medical evacuation request from the Alaska...

U.S. Air National Guard civilian firefighters, assigned to the Vermont Air National Guard Fire Department, pose in front of the fire truck that was the first on scene, South Burlington, VT, June 4, 2025. These firefighters provided the first fire truck on scene to a local fire.
Vermont Air Guard First on Scene of South Burlington Fire
By Airman Raymond LaChance, | June 4, 2025
SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. – Doireann Chesbrough, a civilian firefighter for the Vermont Air National Guard Fire Department, was sitting next to the radio in the dayroom of the station as the sun began to set over the Green...

Paratroopers from the Colorado National Guard and the Jordanian Armed Forces stand together before the first joint Colorado-Jordan airborne Friendship Jump, Watkins, Colorado, April 23, 2025. Members parachuted from a CH-47 Chinook as part of an event to strengthen interoperability and deepen the partnership between the two forces.
Airborne Operation Strengthens Colorado Guard, Jordan Partnership
By Senior Airman Melissa Escobar-Pereira, | June 4, 2025
CENTENNIAL, Colo. – In a display of cooperation and capability, Soldiers from the Colorado Army National Guard and the Jordanian Armed Forces recently conducted a joint airborne operation in Watkins, Colorado.The April 23...