Another way to describe Guam’s location is three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines.

A New Ulm native, U.S. Air Force Col. Dustin “Dusty” P. Born, the son of Dennis and Kathleen Born, a 1997 New Ulm High School graduate and 2001 U.S. U.S. Air Force Academy grad, played a key role in responding and constructing the base back to readiness.

Deployed to Anderson Air Force Base on Guam, Dusty Born was the Air Force Program Management Office director in charge of a Reconstruction Response Team.

Born described Guam after the typhoon last year.

Col. Dustin Born is at right with an Operation Christmas Drop team standing around a box filled with goodies and supplies air dropped across Pacific islands

“There was heavy damage across the island with water and power outages island wide. Many people had no power for more than 30 days,” he said.

Some of the base recovery was fast. Within 24 hours, the airfield was operational and received its first aircraft.

Within a week, there was running water on the base, power was restored to base housing. One hospital patient was evacuated and many base facilities re-opened.

Within a month, 124 aircraft, ranging from passenger planes, commercial airliners, U.S. Navy aircraft and foreign partner aircraft landed at the base.

Recovery efforts included 906 personnel including aid workers that helped 576 people leave the island. Nearly two million tons of cargo including humanitarian aid was shipped within a month.

Born, pictured at far right, was taken near a beach cliff. He said ocean waves carved a hole through the cliff, creating a hole and small pool on the other side that many people enjoy jumping into.

Andersen AFB devoted more than 3,500 man hours to help Guam residents.

Born was promoted to colonel June 1. He was activated June 10 to respond to Guam and set up a program management office in charge of recovering facilities and infrastructure to “better than pre-typhoon condition.” In addition, the office’s mission was to improve resiliency by incorporating new construction standards, typhoon-resistant materials and establishing practices that will allow Andersen AFB to be better prepared for another typhoon and recover quickly.

“We initially saw a lot of damage to roofing, doors and windows,” said Born. “The structures were very resilient as they were rebuilt after Pongsona Typhoon in 2002 with concrete reinforcement after lessons learned from that typhoon. We did not have to worry about structural problems, but water infiltration was significant, so getting buildings sealed up and dried out was our top priority.”

Born said its important after a natural disaster to fully repair facilities.

“Partial repairs tend to leave things undone for a long time. Lingering reapirs fester into larger problems. One of my team’s main focuses has been to identify every part of the base that was damaged and what the full repair needs to be. The recovery program we built will take two to three years to complete. We will rotate crews through on a recurring basis,” Born said.

He said Guam and the Chamorro (indigenous people of the Marianna Islands) are very family oriented.

I’ve had an amazing time meshing with the local community on and off base,” Born said.

“In 2005, I was deployed to Ethiopia and performed missions with the Guam Army National guard. I’ve been able to reach out to some of my former team members and reconnect after 18 years,” he added.

“It’s been great to reminisce about your younger years, adventures with the military and where our careers took us,” Born said.

He listed his favorite things about Guam.

“It’s a tropical island, so opportunities to go to the beach, fish, snorkel and scuba dive are endless,” Born said.

“Guam also has a rich history from the original Chamorro culture, Spanish colonialism and World War II Pacific campaigns with lots of significant, historical sites. Guam also had naturally beautiful lakes, caves and shorelines that are hard to beat,” he said.

Born said he has one year left in his assignment.

“What I’m looking forward to most if just getting home (Rapid City) to see my family. Being gone a year is a long time and the ‘honey do’ list is getting long.