By William Lamb
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Sgt. Emily Love of the Illinois National Guard doesn't remember the man's
name, but she remembers his story and that he wept when he thanked her for
saving his life.
Love, 22, a member of the East St. Louis-based 1344th Transportation Co.,
was searching door-to-door for survivors of Hurricane Katrina off Magazine
Street in New Orleans earlier this month when she found him. The man
appeared to be in his early 60s, Love said. There was more than 3 feet of
water in his house, and part of its roof had collapsed.
"I helped him on the truck and he started talking to me," Love said,
speaking by cell phone Friday from a school gymnasium at Louisiana's Belle
Chasse Naval Air Station, where the company was riding out Hurricane Rita.
"And he was crying," she said. "He was telling me he'd never forget this
experience and that he'd never forget us. He kept saying he thanked God for
us, and that really touched me. I'll never forget him. It made it all
worthwhile."
Love, who packs merchandise orders for Anheuser-Busch in Mount Vernon,
Ill., is one of 120 citizen-soldiers from the 1344th who were dispatched to
Louisiana's Gulf Coast on Sept. 1, four days after Katrina stormed ashore.
The order came through late on Aug. 31, giving them less than 12 hours to
prepare for at least 21 days away from families, homes and jobs. Love said
her 14-month-old son, Edmarius, is living with her parents.
The 1344th was already stretched thin, with about 70 of its members
deployed in Iraq. Some, like Staff Sgt. John Heck, 22, of Granite City, had
just returned from Iraq when they were dispatched to Louisiana.
Members of the unit said they were unprepared for what they saw when they
arrived in New Orleans on Sept. 3.
On their first day in the flooded city, the company helped evacuate about
40 people, said Sgt. Patrick Clark, 29, a native of Fairview Heights who
now lives in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Clark recalls that the water was so deep
that day that the bottom of the boat he was in scraped the tops of cars as
it navigated the city's flooded streets.
"The first couple of days we were finding people," said Clark, whose
civilian job is assistant sports information director for Southeast
Missouri State University. "A lot of people were stranded. ... People were
saying, 'Save us.'"
On Friday night, the members of the 1344th dismantled their tent city at
the Belle Chasse Naval Air Station and set up camp in a gymnasium to wait
out Hurricane Rita.
For now, the company is still scheduled to head home on Saturday. But Clark
said that the 1344th is prepared to remain on the Gulf Coast as long as
it's needed.
"A lot of us have other things going on," Clark said, "but we put our lives
on hold to help out a bigger cause, because we know this is more important
right now."