Water Survival, part II

Spent the last few days in the Moorhead, Minn., area photographing the response to the ever rising Red River of the North. It was odd being in a flood area that had large chunks of ice in it and snow falling while it flooded. Even better than the distinctive accent of the upper Midwest was seeing the way everybody in the community came together to fill sandbags, stack sandbags, build dikes and levees, bring food and coffee and just generally help out. There were even a number of folks who didn't even live in the area, but just came to help out. Mostly though, I focused on what Minnesota Army National Guard folks were doing as part of the response.

Water Survival

Just got back in from spending a few days down in Key West, Fla., on an assignment. I know, I know, pretty rough, eh? Needless to say, the warm weather was a nice break from the low-mid 40s blahness that's been going on in Maryland for the past few weeks. Sure, a few days have hinted at the warmness to come, but I'm getting antsy for nicer weather.

I was down in Key West photographing aircrew members from an Air Force unit going through water survival training, which included, amoung other things, being set out in a raft for a few hours and hoisted aboard an Army UH-1 helicopter. Upon returning, I tried to convince my boss that it was a arduous, difficult assignment and that because I was looking out for the others in the office, I'd volunteer to cover it next time around. I think it would have been more believable had I not had a pretty nice tan going on.