Letter From Col. Brian S. Laidlaw, 325th Fighter Wing Commander

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Florida, Oct. 20 -- The U.S. Air Force (325th Fighter Wing) issued the following news:

Good Morning Team Tyndall,

The hurricane has passed, but the work has just begun. We have completed the initial recovery phase and are well into Phase 2. My main effort in Phase 2 is to get you back into your homes to inspect and gather your belongings for the short term.

As many of you saw in the last few days, there is a lot of debris all over the base and we are working to clean that up. In order to accomplish this we have over 600 Airmen on base, bedding down, and working hard to recover our base so it can be accessed safely.

I know many questions remain about insurance claims, access to property, the evacuation order, personnel actions, and schools. I want you to know that we are taking notes and chasing down answers as fast as we can, even as some of your questions are just plain tough. We will post answers to these important questions as soon as we get the answers.

Please be sure to read our recent press release regarding access to the Panama City area and your entitlements. My goal is to allow more freedom of movement while maintaining entitlements, depending on your specific situation. If you have questions, please reach out to the point of contact that we shared with the document.

For those looking to return, we still do not have the capacity to sustain any more than a minimal population on our base. We're committing the resources we have to secure the base, restore basic utilities, reestablish communications, and bed down follow-on forces.

At every step we remain focused on staying safe as we work in a persistently dangerous environment

You and your families remain in my thoughts day and night. You remain my number one priority throughout this tragedy and our collective recovery.

I am very thankful that you are all safe. As we recover as an Air Force family, I ask that you also remember our friends outside the gates. Let's do what we can to help our community and be there for our friends.

We are better than we were yesterday, and tomorrow we will be better than today.

v/r

Col Brian S. Laidlaw

325th Fighter Wing Commander