The National Reconnaissance Office has been assisting federal agencies with overhead imagery to aid planning for Hurricane Katrina relief operations. The NRO has been “providing direct support” at the request of FEMA, according to NRO director Don Kerr. FEMA needs “a view of how things are, instead of how they were.” Kerr said it’s not the first time his outfit has helped with a disaster, having assisted with forest fire imagery and, last December, the tsunami relief effort. The imagery can’t be released publicly because it would show NRO’s capabilities, but Kerr said that FEMA has “people with the proper access and knowledge of what our systems do” who can make the most of it. —From John A. Tirpak
Clearing jungle and laying asphalt in tropical heat may not sound like fun to most people, but it’s a way of life for Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers (RED HORSE) Airmen, who have spent the past year or so restoring World War II-era airfields on the Pacific…