Area Guardsman to help Louisiana with oil spill

Sgt. Darrin Davis prepares for a take-off with a Black Hawk helicopter. (Photo by Matthew Wilson)

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- Sgt. Darrin Davis has spent literally thousands of hours and more than a decade training in a Black Hawk helicopter.

Now, the East Prairie, Mo., resident will put all that training to good use as part of a special Missouri National Guard team heading to Louisiana later this week to help with response efforts to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The role of the Missouri National Guard will include at least one Black Hawk helicopter and crew, along with 10 to 15 aircraft maintenance personnel.

Davis -- a prior service Marine who also served in Iraq with the Guard -- will serve as a crew chief on the Black Hawk, along with two pilots and another crew chief.

"This is the kind of mission that I think of when I think of the Missouri National Guard," said Davis, 40. "It feels good to do my part and put my training to good use to be able to do whatever I can to help."

The mission will be to transport equipment and personnel, Davis said.

"It's what we're here for, to do what we can to help," Davis said.

Davis serves as human resources noncommissioned officer for the Recruit Sustainment Program for the Missouri National Guard, but his unit is the Fort Leonard Wood-based Charlie Company, 1/106th Aviation Company.

"I'm looking forward to getting to work along with my unit and doing whatever we can," he said.

Gov. Jay Nixon said the Missouri National Guard has a proud record of providing much-needed assistance during times of disaster and emergencies.

"I expect the skills and training of our Guardsmen to be put to good use in helping with the response to this oil spill," he said.

Missouri's adjutant general, Brig. Gen. Stephen Danner, said the state's Guardsmen are ready to pitch in.

"These are the most seasoned Citizen-Soldiers and Airmen in the history of the Guard," Danner said. "After nearly nine years of deployments to support overseas contingency operations and more than a dozen state emergency missions in the same time frame, we're ready to step up to any challenge."

During the mission, the Missourians expect to provide external load capabilities, transport and daily insertion and extraction of response personnel to various sites and missions, Danner said.

This mission will mark a return to the Gulf for Missouri Guard members. Soldiers and Airmen previously supported response efforts to hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Gustav in 2005 and 2008.

Missouri and other state National Guards are being activated under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact. The agreement, which was established in 1996, has become a cornerstone of response to major disasters. It ensures that assets from other states can be brought to bear against a wide range of disasters including fires, floods and manmade disasters.

In February, Gov. Nixon sent a C-130 cargo aircraft and an 11-Airmen crew from the Guard's 139th Airlift Wing to Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina in support of Haiti earthquake relief operations.

For more information about the Missouri National Guard, please call 1-800-GoGuard or visit www.moguard.com.

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For more information about this release, please contact Scott Moyers at (573) 339-6264 or e-mail him at scott.moyers1@us.army.mil.