GIVING BACK

Kansas
Chaos
Wing Assists
Communities
Flattened By
Twisters
By Neil Probst
DDodging lightning from a
developing thunderstorm, Lt.
Col. John Schmidt of the U.S.
Civil Air Patrol flew over
Greensburg, Kan., recently to
photograph tornado damage.
With a bird’s-eye view of the
F5 tornado’s wrath, he suddenly
found himself overwhelmed.
“I didn’t know where to start.
‘Where do I take pictures here?’ The only thing standing
was a grain elevator,” he said.
Schmidt, vice commander of the Kansas Wing, and
about 50 other wing members volunteered more than
300 hours providing air and ground team assistance fol-
lowing this tornado and dozens of others that struck the
state in May.
A pilot during the Vietnam War who flew the F-100
Super Sabre jet on more than 300 missions, Schmidt has
seen his share of devastation. But this clearly stood out
above the rest.
“As we flew above Greensburg, it was the most sickening
feeling,” he said. “There were dead animals and overturned
cars thrown into pastures from miles away.
“It was horrible trying to conceptualize what was happening
on the ground,” he added.
The devastation was not limited to Greensburg.
According to Lt. Col. Dennis Pearson, wing headquarters’
incident commander, nearly 100 tornado touch-downs
occurred around the state within 24 hours; Greensburg
“
I didn’t know where to start. ‘Where do
The only thing standing was a grain ele
U. S. Civil Air Patrol Volunteer 10 July-August 2007