The White Falcon - 29.05.1998, Qupperneq 1

Vol. 57 No. 22
May 29, 1998
Are you ready to part with your pet?
By J02 Rob M. Wise
There are 1,240 families on the NATO
Base. Among these families are approxi-
mately 140 cats and 65 dogs, not to mention
rabbits and birds. In the event of a noncom-
batant evacuation operation (NEO), limited
options will be available for these animals.
“For the purposes of a NEO, we don’t
know what type of aircraft will be used and
we don’t know how quickly we will have to
get people out of the country,” said IDF
Manpower and Personnel Director, Cmdr.
Margaret R. Reed.
“It’s best to plan on not having your pets
come with you. You must have alternate
plans for them.”
During a NEO, family members will
depart, but military people are likely to stay
behind to deal with whatever crisis has
occurred. Although this may temporarily
solve the problem of who will take care of
the pet, the military member will eventually
leave as well. The issue remains of what to
do with the animal.
One way to avoid losing a pet altogether
is to take action at the first hint of trouble.
“If we have advance notice that something
is coming - for example, scientists tell us
that one of the volcanoes is rumbling - fam-
ilies need to be proactive,” Reed said. In
this scenario, taking a pet to the local ken-
nel may not be the best solution for obvious
reasons. “So you may consider putting the
animal on an aircraft, sending it to a relative
or friend.”
If time runs out, however, or no advance
notice of the crisis occurs, pet owners must
consider other alternatives. Having a pet
put to sleep is an option that must be con-
sidered.
“It is infinitely more humane to have an
animal kindly put to sleep than to simply
release it into the elements of Iceland, and
have it suffer a very slow death from starva-
tion and hypothermia,” Reed said.
It’s important for people to separate their
emotions from the practical necessities
required of them during a NEO, she added.
“We recognize America is a land of peo-
ple who like to have their pets with them.”
But in the event of an evacuation, baggage
will hold precedence over pets due to space
limitations and climate conditions aboard
the aircraft. If circumstances permit, plac-
ing pets in a local kennel and having them
forwarded home at a later date may be a
solution.
One option pet owners will not have is
sneaking their animals through the process-
ing station. “Don’t try to smuggle the ani-
mal onto the aircraft with you,” Reed said.
“Strangers working at the processing station
will then become the ones determining what
will happen to your pet.”
An evacuation will be operating on the
premise that people will have made arrange-
ments for their pets prior to out-processing,
she added.
85th OS facility
gets makeover
By J02 Brian R. Ellis
The drip, drip, drip began approximately
two years ago and it only got worse.
Now, the 85th Operations Squadron (85
OS) is doing something about it. Earlier this
month, repairs began of the squadron’s alert
facility.
“That facility was built during the Cold
War. But once the supposed ‘Cold War’
ended, and the permanent aircraft and peo-
ple went away, the alert facility wasn’t
used,” said Master Sgt. Cecil Lewis, 85 OS
sortie support flight chief. “During more
than a year’s period, the facility was neglect-
ed.
What we’re trying to do now is get it back
up to specs, and make the facility livable for
those units that come up here or deploy
here.”
Tech. Sgt. Andrew Kruczek, 85 OS sup-
port section chief, said the whole problem
began a couple of years ago when someone
See Facility Renovation, page 2
Icelandic Comer
I don’t understand you.
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(E-yeg skeel thig ekki)
Saving lives... Senior Airman Justin S. Campbell is hoisted aboard the HH-60G Pave
Hawk piloted by Capt. Scott R. Swanson of 56 RQS after retrieving a heart attack victim on
board a Russian trawler last week. See related Story, page 4. (Photo by Capt. Shannon
L. Beardsley)
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