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| Global Wrap®, International Disaster Experience |
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| Shelters Built in Spitak, Armenia Christmas 1988 |
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| Woman Who Lost Her Family |
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Anthony Seraphin was watching the evening news in early December 7, 1988, when a news bulletin came on about a devastating earthquake, measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale, that just level the city of Spitak in Armenia. The snow was coming down and the people were walking the streets dazed. The news images showed total devastation, buildings collapsed to the ground; there was no shelter from the snow storm. Simultaneously, he was listening to Pink Floyd's "No More Turning Away From the Weak and Downtrodden". As the images flashed by and the musical poetry continued, he thought about the large objects he and his father-in-law, James Talbot, shrink wrapped with Mr. Talbot's patented process for shrink wrapping boats. He and Mr. Talbot co-founded Protect-A-Boat, Inc and they had also just started Film Applicators of North America, FANA, and were beginning to take on larger objects to wrap.
Mr. Seraphin imagined using this technology to build shelters to get the people in from the sub zero weather, but how could he get men and materials seventeen thousand miles away in a country he barely knew anything about that was part of the Soviet Union. After a few hours of thinking about it, he knew he could do something about it, but who would help him? The next morning he made his first phone call to the Russian Embassy in D.C., who responded back to him the same day with please make arrangements to come, you have the clearance. No money, no planes, no direction. His next call was to the State Department, who gave him clearance, but no help. That afternoon, knowing about Union Carbine's problem in Bhopal, India Seraphin thought it would be good PR for them to sponsor the project. He called them, got through to the Chairman office, left a message about the project with the secretary and immediately received a call back from the PR department. Seraphin outlined his project and that same day, Union Carbine came aboard with the financing.
John Woodmansee worked for Protect-A-Boat and his father was a Four Star General in Germany. He called his father and was advised to call the Air National Guard, anywhere, their pilots had to log so many hours a month to maintain their flying status. Seraphin made the calls all over the U.S. and late that night received a call from a Colonel in the Mississippi Air National Guard, who asked him how soon he could mobilize and meet their KC-130 at McGuire AFB in New Jersey. Seraphin said he could be ready in three days. From this he mobilized a crew of fourteen volunteers, including Richard Synder, a retired Green Beret, who specialty was survival. Snyder began putting together a list of materials and foods needed in freezing conditions. Seraphin began palletizing the shrink film and tools from Protect-A-Boat, ordered a ton of conduit for the frame work of the shelters and in two days, they were ready to go. The KC-130 landed at McGuire late the following night and the men and materials were loaded aboard. First Stop, Germany, next day they landed in Yerevan, Armenia, where the Russian soldiers helped the team load trucks and leave for the epicenter, Spitak. The team stay nineteen days, through Christmas and the following images tell the story of Spitak and the American spirit to help those crushed by Mother Nature.
A postscript: All the men coming back from this disaster, had experience a life change, many of them had problems adjusting back to small town USA. To live is sub zero weather, no baths, poor food, drinking with the Russians every night, and watching the caskets build up around them, due to the frozen ground, took its toll, but all would agree, it was the most thrilling experience of their lives. The night they were supposed to fly out on a Red Cross plane, they were bumped off the flight at the last minute and stranded on the tarmac in Yerevan. Seraphin made a phone call to a friend who knew a wealthy Armenian in Miami, who owned cargo planes. One day later, after sleeping in the airport, the cargo plane arrived, loaded the men on and flew to Ireland, refueled and flew to Miami, all the men were home for New Years.
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| First Stop, Frankfort, Germany |
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The team was made up of men from all walks of life, most had never been out of the country. I wonder where most of them are now, but I do know they will never forget Armenia and the life experience they were lucky enough to get. "Sarge", Richard Snyder, front row, second from the right, was a key element in our surviving the elements, something we didn't take too seriously while getting ready for the trip, but greatly appreciated once there.
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| Our Armenian Friends Working With Us |
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Many of the Armenian men working with us, had lost realitives, some their entire families and yet they kept our spirits up with jokes, hard work and their friendship. I was amazed to hear them talk about the history of Armenia and all the suffering that country endured through the centuries. "We know no other way to survive and go on in life."
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Igor on the right, a soldier from the Ariel Mountain region of Russia, traded his fur ushanka for two rolls of toilet paper. I wanted to give the rolls to him, but he wanted to give me something to remember him by, I am still very proud of having it. He really enjoyed seeing me wear it, but asked that I not be seen in it when we ate with the Russian officers at night. One night I threw a piece of grizzle away and he came around the tent and told me in broken English, "Wolves." You could hear them not far away in the mountains coming down at night, it was said they were coming after the bodies, but somehow I thought it was too cold at 32 below zero to smell anything.
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| This was a constant scene |
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Over six thousand people died in the earthquake, none could be buried due to the frozen ground, our site had hundreds of caskets piled up, a constant reminder to us of where and why we were there.
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| Our Armenian working friends |
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| John Woodmansee was a constant uplift for all of us and the Armenians. John was a Army helicopter pilot, whose father, General Woodmansee, Commander of the air base in Frankfurt, Germany, made it possible for us to get the plane that brought us to Armenia. John and I spent a lot of time together going from one Russian command tent to the next. Stalin was smart about keeping all the satellite countries separated from one another, the Polish were in charge of artillery, the Bulgarians ran the tanks and so forth, no two could ever get together. It was the same in Spitak and so we met different officers from all over the Soviet Union.
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| Surviving in the rubble |
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Beleive it not, this woman was surviving in the rubble of her destroyed home. We gave her blankets and food, the Russians had little to provide, as the supplies were still on the way. All over Spitak, the scene was much the same and we couldn't believe how tough and courageous these Armenians were.
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| The Shelters are going upin 20 below weather |
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| We continued to build the shelters in sub freezing conditions. About half way through a large one, 30" x 150'L, the Russians began taking possession of the ones completed, but not for the people, for the party members and their staffs. Richard Synder,"Sarge" and I questioned them about this, this was not the reason we came, we were there for the people. We were told to continue working and not interfere with their decisions, but we did. I told the head of the local party that we were stopping work, unless we were seeing civilians moving in, he laughed and asked where we thought we would be going? After two hours of bad coffee and arguing, they assured us that the first shelters were for the rescue workers and then the civilians. We didn't have much choice, but to believe them. During the construction of one large shelter, a high wind came through the valley and the shelter acted like a kite and took off with six Armenians hanging on, we started shouting at them to let go and they did, dropping to the ground, while the shelter went up into the air and was destroyed. High winds were a constant hazard to us.
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| Anthony Seraphin and Union Carbine's PR Director, John Mantasee |
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Anthony Seraphin on the left and John Mantsee on the right. He was the one I spoke with about Union Carbine sponsoring our trip. We had some friction during the project as to who was leading who, but everyone settle in and we became a unit.
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| We were told the driver survived |
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The destruction was thirty miles wide.
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| The Team and friends |
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Just before Christmas we had this image taken, by the way all images on this trip were taken by the Union Carbine photographer, front row first on the right. I am sorry to say I forgot his name, but he did an excellent job as you can see. My friend, Mike Stenberg,
is on my right, third in from the right.
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| John Woodmansee III |
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Christmas Eve in the tent. John Woodmansee kept us laughing with his good spirits, but he was also a hard worker and innovative. He and I made the rounds of the Russian tents, spreading the Can Do spirit of Americans. I'll always remember him for all the good times we had together under difficult times. He now owns a business that deals with military equipment he invents, TRGear in Plano, Texas. I spoke with him recently and hopefully a few of us, including Mike Stenberg will be getting together here in St. Augustine.
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| The Shelters Kept Going Up |
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You can see how tight we could shrink the film, even in 10 degrees below zero and that was a sunning day. By this time we had a good number of locals trained in building these shelters and securing them to the frozen earth. The next problem came in heating them and that's where the Russians came in with 55 gallon empty steel drums and stacks to vetilate the smoke.
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| Christmas Dinner 1988 |
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| Christmas Eve we spent in our shelter with a dead tree the Russian guard, Igor, brought us. Christmas Day was the dinner the Armenians gave us. That day they rolled a 55 gallon drum up to the shelter and filled it with chucks of ice and snow, build a fire around it and in a few hours, it was boiling. Next they bought up a lamb and in front of us, cut it's throat, and skinned it, cut it in parts and put into the boiling water. Merry Christmas Armenian disaster style. A few more hours later, we had dinner, I won't comment on this tough meal, but it was sufficient and a good time was had by all. One of the officials made a toast to us, "America has sent it's best diplomats", many toasts followed and the vodka flowed. We bought along twelve cases of American beer, I won't mention the name and offered it to the Russians and Armenians. They had never seen a flip top can before and got a real kick out of them. Igor and the rest took a gulp and put the cans down, never to be touched again. I asked Igor why they didn't drink the beer and he asked half laughing, You Americans drink that horse piss?". we all broke out laughing. Beer freezes, vodka doesn't, so that was the drink of the situation.
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| Advertising Our Ballet Company |
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As you can imagine, baths were out of the question, one good thing about the feezing conditions was the lack of body odor, although we did have water in the tents for drinking and shaving. We were looking forward to going home by New Years since the locals were trained and we were leaving all our tools and materials.
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| The completed shelters the night before we left |
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If I remember correctly, we built twelve to fourteen large shrink film shelters, some a 100' long. Aron, our Amerian enterpeter later wrote me they built another ten. He stayed in touch with me for a few years and then I never heard from him again. He was working his way up in the party, lived in Yeravan, had a wife and two children, a really good friend to all of us.
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| Yeravan was tense |
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While we were there the Armenians were preparing for war against Azerbaijan, seems they were fighting for a long time over borders and oil, the Russians were trying to keep the peace. Our hotel had holes in the floors, where you could talk with the people on the floor below. We all got to call home on short wave and tour the city for a day before flying home. If this was the Garden of Eden, God stripped it of trees after Adam and Eve moved. I was thrilled to see Big and Little Mt. Ararat, across the border in Turkey, where Moses parked his zoo. As I said before, this adventure changed my life and attitude towards life, these people were tough and it made me feel silly to worry about life anymore, one day at a time and enjoy waking up in the morning. One year later I organized another crew to go into Iran during the Kuwaiti war after another earthquake hit, this time it was 115 degrees. Sarge, Mike Stenberg also came along, two troopers that I still respect, I am in contact with Mike all the time and now John Woodmansee. It just goes to show what can be done if you want to and never let anyone say you can't. I still listen to Pink Floyd.
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| On the cargo plane home |
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Some us were sick, including me, but we landed in Limerick, Ireland the next morning. Thanks to an Armenian, who we contacted in Miami, we left in time to get home for New Years Eve. the pilot wanted to refuel and head to Miami. Union Carbine was trying to fly their jet over, but couldn't for a few days. Air Lengus offered to fly us the next day, but everyone wanted to make it home for New Years. I opted to stay and go the next day. They treated me like well, it seems the town had seen us on the BBC, who filmed us while we were in Spitak. The next day I flew home first class, compliments of Air Lengus, and arrived one hour before the rest of team landed in Philadelphia, they were delayed in Miami. John Woodmansee told me he sat behind the pilot and kept him awake. At any rate we all were home for New Years, changed men indeed.
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