asst. to editor

ALTUS -- Oklahoma National Guard troops with the 1st Battalion, 171st Field Artillery, based in Altus, returned home Monday following a difficult and moving mission of rescue and aid in the hurricane ravaged streets of New Orleans.

Three days after Hurricane Katrina smashed into the Gulf states on Aug. 28, quick reaction forces of Oklahoma's Guard were on the scene, said Capt. Paul Harris, officer in charge of the 171st, on Monday afternoon after he released the men and women for a couple days of rest before they come back to the armory Thursday to give their vehicles some TLC.

Harris, and some 350 other Guard troops from the 171st, the 158th in Lawton and the HHB in Enid, left Sept. 1 for the two day trip to New Orleans, where they immediately set up operations next to the New Orleans Convention Center.

Employing search and rescue vehicles able to traverse through 4 1/2 to 5 feet of water -- Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks -- the troops teamed with state and local police, special forces, search and rescue units from across the nation and federal agencies, Harris explained.

They performed some 350 types of missions, he said, adding that, "Every day we were pretty hooked up with what we were doing."

And that word -- doing -- is key, Harris pointed out, noting that much of the reporting in the major media disregarded the fact that the Guard was, indeed, on the ground. "We were there doing it," he said. "The majority of the people were extremely grateful for us being there."

Harris said Oklahoma Guardsmen were able to help some 3,000 displaced people in Orleans Parish, load them many on helicopters, providing medical care and processing them for transportation out of the flooded city at an evacuation point across from the Convention Center.

The troops carried weapons at all times -- after first 10 days, not that bad -- looting not so prevalent

Sgt. 1st Class Kenny Sims recounted that on Sept. 7, a week and a half after Katrina hit, some members of the 171st on patrol in a 70-foot flatbottom boat came across a 62-year-old woman who was stranded on a second floor landing of an apartment building. "She had barely had enough energy to yell at them," Sims said, adding that the woman would likely have perished had it not been for the Guard's arrival.

The 171st has armories in Altus, Mangum, Frederick, Hobart, Clinton, Elk City and Weatherford.