Cadets perform flood relief work in South Dakota

  • Published
  • By John Van Winkle
  • Air Force Academy Public Affairs
PIERRE, S.D. (AFNS) --  Approximately 150 Air Force Academy cadets removed sandbags and cleared flood debris Sept. 29-Oct. 2 here.

The cadets travelled to South Dakota to spend the weekend participating in a flood cleanup as part of the Academy's Cadet Service Learning program. The Cadet Wing performs approximately 40,000 hours of community service each academic year around the Pikes Peak Region and the nation.

Two years of heavy precipitation, followed by greater-than-average runoff from the Montana snowpack into Missouri River tributaries set the conditions this summer for flooding along the Missouri River, officials said. Among the communities affected were Fort Pierre and Pierre. The two communities border opposite sides of the Missouri River, just five miles downstream from the Ohae Dam.

"This flood is an unusual type of flood," said South Dakota governor Dennis Daugaard. "Normally, we get 65 cubic feet per second of water being released by the dam. At its peak this summer, we had 110 cubic feet per second. Normally, you have this onslaught of tremendous water, for which you have little or no preparation time. Then after a few days, maybe a week, the water's gone."

Instead, the water remained high for weeks.

"In the beginning, volunteerism was high, but so was the job ahead of us," Daugaard said. "We really couldn't take down all the sandbags, and then school began, so a lot of that young, strong labor force wasn't available."

The need became known to the command section of the Academy's Cadet Squadron 38, who organized the journey and solicited volunteers from the entire Cadet Wing.

"It honestly sounded like an adventure," said Cadet 1st Class Amanda Bolton, the Cadet Squadron 36 commander. "It sounded like something different from the normal community service that we do, which is local cleanup, and we get to travel a little bit and get the squadron together."

When the cadets arrived to help, they were split into small groups at 20 different worksites in the two cities, officials said. In Fort Pierre, cadets removed the debris left behind by long-standing flood waters from around the homes of elderly citizens in the Dunes and Frontier Road area and also cleaned flood-damaged basements. In Pierre, cadets removed thousands of sandbags that formed primary and secondary berms and makeshift levees around city and historic buildings along the riverfront.

"It's outside doing something, but it's also getting the chance to talk to people in the (squadron)," Bolton said. "During the school year, we're just so busy with academics and sports and so many other things that you really don't get the chance to hang out with your (squadron) mates."

The concept of "Service Learning" is to offer cadets character development programs that emphasize one of the Air Force's core values, "Service Before Self," officials said. The cadet Service Learning program attempts to take this core value from the theoretical concepts of the classroom to actual experiences with the goal of a lifelong internalized volunteer ethic and understanding of the value of serving others, particularly in the area of community service, like the flood relief work in South Dakota.

"It's been a really long, hard summer for people here, and they're tired and worn out," Daugaard said. "And yet to have all these Air Force Academy cadets here, at the peak of their physical ability, means a lot to us. We are so grateful to have them here."