Rescue of School Children Highlights NH Guard Role in Nor'easter

Airmen from the NH Air National Guard's 157th Air Refueling Wing assist Jordan Bell and her mother, Bev, into a five ton during a school evacuation at Nottingham Elementary School, April 16. (Photo by 2nd Lt. Sherri Pierce, 157ARW PAO)
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CONCORD (4/18/2007) – The rescue of 18 children in Nottingham, whose school was surrounded by flood waters, highlighted the NH National Guard's efforts throughout the state to assist first responders during Monday's nor'easter.

From placing sandbags to providing traffic control, more than 200 NH citizen soldiers and airmen deployed to more than 16 communities to help local police and fire departments, and bring an added level of reassurance to residents.

They will continue to work in towns throughout today.

Using a large, five-ton military truck, a dozen airmen from the 157th Air Refueling Wing forded high water at the Nottingham elementary school Monday afternoon and transported the children safely nearby to their waiting parents.

"I was very confident that there weren't going to be any problems because the National Guard was bringing the children out," said Noreen Duffy-Granbery, whose son Enan was one of the students evacuated. "It was a great thing for the kids to see that the people helping them were somebody's mom and somebody's dad and they just happen to have a uniform on."

Gov. John Lynch activated 200 NH Guardsmen on Monday morning and later authorized the call-up of an additional 200.

It was the third time since October 2005 that the NH Guard has been activated for storm-related emergencies in the state.

The state activation punctuates a busy week for the NH Guard. Its Medical Command deployed to the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in northern California for its two-week annual training to support a local clinic. A crew from the NH Guard's 744th Transportation Company is hauling a home built by students from the Somersworth Technical School to a family in Louisiana who lost their's in Katrina. And the Joint Force Headquarters is hosting a group of Salvadoran police, who are visiting as part of the NH Guard's State Partnership Program with the Central American Republic of El Salvador.

In addition to serving the citizens of New Hampshire, more than half of the NH National Guard's 2,700 soldiers and airmen have supported combat and peacekeeping operations overseas as well as humanitarian missions in Louisiana after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Currently, 160 NH Guardsmen are deployed overseas supporting combat operations in Iraq and other locations in the Middle East.