The CH-47D Chinook and the
         
Flipper's in Honduras
         
battle starvation and depravation...

 

 

         
Uploading of food at Danli, Honduras.

 

             Shown above is aircraft 85-24337, piloted by Army Aviators CW3 Mark S. Morgan and CW3 Dave Williams, and crewed by SSGT Hector Velez and SPC Chris Wrubel.  Operating out of a staging area in the town of Danli, Honduras, the crew uploaded 13,000 pounds of food and clothing for transport to the many surrounding communities.

 

             The population making up the village of Yoro, Honduras, consisted mainly of children - the vast majority under the age of 13.

 

         
The Children of Yoro, Honduras.
   Many had their parents killed in the storm, while others were brought there and abandoned because parents could no longer provide for their well being.

 

             As orphans, these children rely heavily on outside agencies from around the world to provide food and clothing.

 

         
The Children of Yoro, Honduras.
   Charlie Company made numerous trips, transporting over 100,000 pounds of desperately needed supplies.

 

 

         
A flooded river in eastern Honduras.

 

             In the Bocay area of Honduras, sharing the border with Nicaragua, the river rose over 30 feet and devastated a large section of land and destroyed villages and towns along the way.

 

         
A river ran through it...

 

             On this river bank, all that remains of the town and it's people are a few donated tents ferried in by the helicopters operated by the Flipper's. Even in this aerial photograph, it is very difficult to grasp the full impact of hundreds of miles of flood damage caused by Hurricane Mitch.

 

         
Flipper's to the rescue...

 

             Inaccessible by road, the only means to gain entrance to this isolated community is either by the rain swollen river or by helicopter. Pictured above is one of the Flipper Chinooks bringing in a load of desperately needed supplies - food, clothing, and medicine.

 

         
The rivers cut almost all of the bridges throughout the country...

 

             As shown above, the torrential rains, delivered by one of the most powerful hurricanes this century, wiped out almost every bridge in the country of Honduras. Overnight, the entire nation became a collection of remotely isolated pockets of people trying to survive. The search for food, clothing and shelter became a nightmare. There were no cars or even trains heading east, only helicopters. Bodies lay everywhere, and thousands of people are still unaccounted for in the rubble that remains to this day.

 

          The CH-47 - 40 years old and still circling the world.

 

         

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