SOF Vets Looking to help Helene Response

[MR2]

DTG of Message:
05 0745 OCT 24

SOF Vets Looking to help Helene Response: Initial responders have established a FOB-style footprint and are currently pushing ground and air teams from FOB to isolated personnel and communities vic Asheville. Intent is added capacity for local first responders and to leverage assets to assist them in establishing contact with isolated personnel/communities, building communications networks, and developing the situation by providing more accurate intel assessments and effective response efforts.

Link-up location:
FOB Savage
20 Patton Cove Rd
Swannanoa, NC

Coordinating Instructions:
-If possible, task organize into small groups traveling in Pickups/SUVs (limited space to park vehicles indefinitely)
-BPT self-sustain for your duration to extent possible. Food/water is available, but this will deplete on-hand stock.
-BPT to provide support ranging from FOB ops to field work. RON situations in austere areas are possible. Weather is expected to deteriorate over next week (rain, colder temps).

***Please coordinate response package info by email to: FOBSavageOps@gmail.com
Include:
#/names of individuals
#/type of vehicles
Any specialty equipment
Any speciality skill sets
***

Network and capabilities are continuing to expand and we will provide updates shortly. Very fluid situation as we build capacity and build out task org. Thank you!

We are out pacing all federal and state response according to local sheriffs and emergency management. Yesterday was 35 helicopters and 75,000 pounds of supplies, not counting dismounted teams. Horseback, dirtbike, truck, large freight

https://signal.group/#CjQKIB5tx6d457wPS-_xuHM8SaGSv4gte23hzCZDPbNlWuFlEhBQMs6lko3RhZWdQu8B 6ktg

[Badger52]

There is clearly righteous work to be done. The privateer helos are doing a fine job along with the (thankfully increasing) UH-60's and CH-47's.

[Badger52]

Disclaimer: I do not know if this operation is related to MR2's communication above. But it is a pretty cool story from the NY Post. (https://nypost.com/2024/10/07/us-news/redneck-air-force-is-bringing-aid-to-nc-when-fema-came-up-short/)

Teaser:
SWANNANOA, North Carolina — Hundreds of special operations personnel in North Carolina have formed their own homegrown rescue and supply operation in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene after they grew tired of waiting for the federal government to get its act together.

The Post found an all-volunteer operation being run out of a Harley-Davidson dealership with ruthless efficiency and military precision.

“Who’s FEMA?” ex-Green Beret Adam Smith derisively responded when asked about the agency’s presence on the ground since the deadly storm ravaged the rural western part of the state.

A group of men in a makeshift operations center planning hurricane response efforts.

Fed up with the sluggish response by the federal government, a group of dedicated volunteers calling themselves the Redneck Air Force has stepped up to fill the void, managing a massive homegrown rescue operation with military precision. Ben Hendren

“This disaster has definitively proven without a shadow of a doubt FEMA’s incompetence and incapability,” he said, noting that the agency didn’t even show up until Thursday — almost a week after the storm that has killed at least 232, nearly half of them in the mountainous west of the Tar Heel State.

Unwilling to stand idly by after feeling his community was languishing with inadequate support from the government, Smith enlisted the help of a few good men and women to take matters into their own hands.

This Harley-Davidson dealership has become a forward operating base, complete with a fleet of 35 helicopters that have flown hundreds of rescue, reconnaissance and resupply sorties.

Organizers are calling the effort the “Savage Freedoms Relief Operation,” but Smith says they’ve proudly adopted the alternate moniker — “the Redneck Air Force.”

The dealership teems with current and former soldiers decked out in camo pants and army boots with handguns strapped to their chests and hips. Crop duster pilots, helicopter tour guides and special operations pilots — most of them off-duty or retired military — have answered the call from Smith and others in North Carolina’s extensive military community.

They’re using their own aircraft to fly doctors, medicine, generators, fuel and food to isolated residents cut off from the world by the unprecedented floods to washed out mountain roads and wiped entire towns off the map.

Supplies and fuel for an operation of this magnitude don’t come cheap, but the group has relied entirely on donations, including around $190,000 raised through a GoFundMe page, Smith said.

I will say during daylight today I had a bunch of deskwork to do & just fired up the software and tracked the airspace in that area. Privateer helos outnumbered .MIL by about 6:1. Now that's nothing against the .MIL 'cause that CH47 can haul a metric shitload of stuff. But it's quite inspiring. Everything from surplus Hueys down to Hughes little birds.

:lifter

[glebo]

They're doing great things there. They have a base camp at Swannanoa HD dealer and have been coordinating/running opns since 5 Oct non-stop.
Sustainment is key.

[Badger52]

They're doing great things there. They have a base camp at Swannanoa HD dealer and have been coordinating/running opns since 5 Oct non-stop.
Sustainment is key.
Fox is covering them. Nice quick spot with a spokesperson volunteer this AM and Fox' Griff Jenkins is going to straphang into a couple of the towns that are isolated. Lady pointed out they also did a recovery which gave closure to a family who had someone missing. There is going to be much more of that.

[glebo]

Supposedly they've gone through 1k body bags. Not sure if they're using them for something else...or just bodies..
If it is that bad, and the gov isn't up there "helping", then there's gonna be some very pissed off folks. Those are the folks ya don't want to piss off either..

[Badger52]

I have a query in to them for a snail mail address for those who don't like .coms for donating. Will post when they answer.

[Gypsy]

Please do!

God bless them

[Badger52]

Please do!

God bless themThey did respond & apologized for the delay (unnecessary, they're busy as hell). Said Sunday that they're setting up a PO Box for that purpose and they'd get back to me with the mechanics. MTF, hopefully.

[Badger52]

I have a query in to them for a snail mail address for those who don't like .coms for donating. Will post when they answer.
Here ya go!

Monetary donations can be made payable to Savage Freedoms and mailed to:

Savage Freedoms
c/o Taylor Knipp
503 E Nifong
#114
Columbia, MO 65201-3717

Thank you! We appreciate your support.

[Gypsy]

Thanks! I assume a check is acceptable. I can't get to a bank for a certified money order since I'm currently in a rehab facility

[Badger52]

Thanks! I assume a check is acceptable. I can't get to a bank for a certified money order since I'm currently in a rehab facilityI'm pretty sure they will take any amount, by any means. Certainly they're burning motor fuel, and Jet-A for any choppers they're running is at least $7.50/gal at Asheville Airport. Curiously, about 60nm east is Hickory where it's all literally $2.00 less/gallon. Must be some of that "price gauging" that Willie Brown's squeeze was talking about.

Get well, dammit! and quit lolligaggin' the PT. :D

[Gypsy]

I'm pretty sure they will take any amount, by any means. Certainly they're burning motor fuel, and Jet-A for any choppers they're running is at least $7.50/gal at Asheville Airport or any surrounding field.

Get well, dammit! and quit lolligaggin' the PT. :D

Excellent, thank you so much. I missed glebo's post earlier so I will just do the GoFundMe and get them cash right away.

I am at Marianjoy rehabilitation Hospital. I have never had PT like this PT. :lifter :eek:

[Badger52]

Herschel over at The Captain's Journal covers (https://www.captainsjournal.com/2024/10/27/my-report-from-western-north-carolina-and-virginia/) a road-trip report he & Mrs. took into the devastated areas. In particular I like his suggestion that, if they want to be REALLY relevant, perhaps the NCNG should get some guys to ruck up and hoof it into some of those little villages that were literally completely cutoff (and stiill are) after the river trestles all went away. Maybe pack a couple of medics along and then coordinate helo drops following an assessment in the villages, hamlets, whatever you want to call them. Surely there must be someone in NC who'd have the skills to do that.
:munchin