SWAMPSCOTT — Patrick Burke, a Swampscott resident and chief master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, and his crew have provided storm relief in Florida, after Hurricane Irma recently tore through the state.
For Burke, there’s no word on when he can head home; another big storm, Hurricane Maria, continues to devastate Puerto Rico — he and his crew have been repositioned from Florida to Atlanta, Ga., to help with Maria relief for Puerto Rico and were heading to their new location on Thursday.
The Lynn native is an Air Force Reserve member who had been deployed to South Florida, and checked in because he thinks it’s important to let residents know the good work the military reserve is doing.
Burke, 49, said things are pretty bad where he’s been, south of Miami, at the northern tip of the Florida Keys, which were hit the hardest by Irma about two weeks ago. He said there’s widespread destruction on buildings, an untold number of trees down and a lot of water and flooding. There’s also a lot of people without power.
Burke said he and his crew got the call on Sept. 10, and flew out of the Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee a day later into the Homestead Air Reserve Base in South Florida. The hurricane had started ravaging the Keys that weekend.
“It’s been quite an experience,” Burke said. “When we first got here, obviously the base had been hit. The hurricane obviously came through here. All the local civilian and military people evacuated.”
He said his reserve crew came in with heavy equipment and opened up the airfield because no one else was there after the evacuation. Only a skeleton crew of about 20 military folks had remained behind at the base. Burke said once the hurricane hits, the reserve force comes in to set up infrastructure and re-establish the base to fill the gap for all of the local capabilities.
Burke said this is critical because having the base up and running makes it available to national leaders, who can use it as an operation point. He said it gives other forces the option to fly in heavy equipment to get into the communities for relief.
“It’s very, very important what we do in the grand scheme of things because if you don’t have a functional airfield, there’s no way to get supplies into the area,” Burke said.
He said work has been done by others to get power back on and clear the roads and debris. Burke said his guys were helping to clear trees and get the area back to reality.
There’s also security needed in the area because people try to take advantage of a storm, Burke said.
In the past several days, Burke said there have been search and rescue helicopters coming to the Homestead base from the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Army.
Burke said his crew is all reserve, so everyone has jobs and lives — he works for General Electric in Lynn and lives with his wife and four children in Swampscott. He said he knows his deployment to Florida has been a strain on his family and co-workers at GE, but they have all been supportive.
Burke has been deployed four times, to Qatar, Kuwait, and twice to Afghanistan, but he said this deployment is different for him and his crew, as it allows them to help their fellow civilians in a different way. He said the hurricane relief has been rewarding for everyone to take part in and attitudes have been great.
“Everyone knew what we were doing was important,” Burke said. “We’re not always out breaking stuff. There’s a lot of good stuff the military does. I want to make sure all the hard work gets recognized.”
