WATAUGA COUNTY, N.C. — Thousands of national guardsmen are on the ground in counties across the Carolinas, areas hard hit by Helene.
That includes a group of soldiers stationed at the Western Watauga Community Center, which has been their headquarters since arriving in western North Carolina. They eat here, sleep here and are tasked with a different mission each day to provide relief for those recovering from Helene's devastation.
Soldiers here are from different units, but they all have the same mission. This team is calling themselves the “hill hogs.”
“We were trying to figure out from the east side to the west side, how do we convert our usual names that we call ourselves and our call signs to something that is welcoming to the community but also helps us identify ourselves with the mission that we have,” Sgt. 1st Class Eric Bethea said. “Now, we are working in the hills of Appalachian State. So that is how the hill hogs were formed. That is the name we gave ourselves to keep motivating ourselves in the fight while we are out here.”
National Guardsmen are trained for combat, to respond to states of emergency and natural disasters like Helene.
“This area has been hit extremely ... it's nothing anyone here in the mountains could have guessed would have happened here,” Sgt. Heath Kinney said.
They’ve been stationed in Watauga County since the storm hit.
“We’re here to ease the pressure, bring some relief to the situation and help those people get back on their feet,” Bethea said.
Their priority is to provide immediate support. WCNC Charlotte crews rode along with Kinney, who shared more about their operation.
“The mission in the beginning was searching for people to give aid to," he explained. "We would drive around to local areas and basically and see who needed our assistance. If they were trapped in their house or needed water or food.”
On Wednesday, his team was tasked with identifying roads that need to be rebuilt to assist NCDOT. Soldiers have been driving across the county to identify roads that are still passable and those that will require major repairs so people can access necessary resources.
“Right here, you have the erosion that has washed away on this side from the water flow,” Kinney said. “As we went farther down the road it continued to wash away on both sides. So, what an engineer is going to have to do is maybe regrade the road or they will bring material to repack the road.”
Soldiers are providing the support to help stabilize communities in a time of need.
“Being able to be out there, boots on the ground and showing these people that we are here to have your back and seeing their reactions … that’s very welcoming,” Bethea said. “It makes you smile.”
It's a mission worth suiting up for.
“We never know what's next,” Kinney said. “We could be here and continue to pass out supplies to the community or we can get sent somewhere else and be tasked with a whole different mission.”
This team is always ready, hill hogs strong.
Contact Jesse Pierre at jpierrepet@wcnc.com or follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.