National Guard Troops Return From Dominican Republic On Haiti Relief Mission

by Gabe BullardSome members of the Kentucky Air National Guard returned from the Dominican Republic Friday.The 123rd Contingency Response Group were deployed to the Dominican Republic last month, after an earthquake devastated much of Haiti.The troops established an airfield about 70 miles away from the Haitian capital. They received planeloads of humanitarian aid and shipped it over land to Haiti.Major Kevin Thornberry says traffic on the airfield was intense for several days, but it eventually waned."There's a couple of reasons for that," he says. "One is the tremendous job they did in Port au Prince to stand up the airfield, to increase the capability there more quickly than maybe was originally projected, plus the ability of them to get the sea ports back open."In their time on the ground, the troops moved more than 600 tons of food and supplies to Haiti.