During the month after Katrina visited New Orleans, it quickly became apparent that folks wanted to help. Folks sent stuff, mostly clothes, by the droves. I think I still have brand new T-shirts never worn from various fire departments in New England. It also became apparent that you could only use so much of the items that were sent to you. The last thing that became apparent (for this story) was that if you needed something, and didn't have it, you could likely find it at another command that had an overabundance of what you needed, but they didn't. That's where horse trading came into play.

Find out what the holder of what you need needs, or wants, locate same, and trade it for what you needed. Note: multiple trades may be needed before you can finally complete the original trade. This story is about what I consider my best trade.

When it became imperative that the folks who had been evacuated to the Super Dome needed to be relocated, someone came up with the great idea to bus them to the Navy Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chase, LA, about 12 miles south of NOLA. After all, it was a secure location, had a C-130 hangar located in an obscure corner of the base that currently wasn't being used, and had plenty of support.

What wasn't taken into account was also in that obscure corner of the base was the Coast Guard Air Station which was running the biggest Search and Rescue operation in history, launching close to 100 sorties a day involving various types of aircraft, including C-130's. Which happened to be using the empty hangar's ramp. Not to say that all that separated the C-130 ramp from the CG's helicopter ramp was about 20-30 yards of grass.

What could possibly go wrong dropping Lord knows how many hundreds of civilians (who just destroyed the Super Dome) into a location with operating aircraft, with virtually no security? Lore has it that the only thing that stopped the insanity was that when the Mayor of NOLA boarded the refugees onto busses for the ride to the JRB, they were met at the Plaquemine's parish line by deputies armed with long guns that threatened to shoot the tires off the busses if they entered the parish.

Anyway, the plan was cancelled. But one of the side benefits was that the powers to be had started dropping off supplies. One of the things they did was drop a ton of huge boxes off from some food pantry, which were stored in the off-limits C-130 hangar.

Shortly thereafter, while I was meeting a plane on the C-130 ramp, I noticed the hangar doors open, and all the boxes. I performed my due diligence and investigated the boxes. When I started looking it quicky became obvious that someone else had been there before me but had bigger balls than me. They had actually opened two of the boxes. But what I found inside those two boxes can only be described as... JACKPOT!

Those boxes contained GOLD! Not the metal type of gold, but bags of cookies, candy, pretzels and other stuff that was impossible to find. I had found the things that helped keep the Ice Cream Man tradition alive. The C-130 hangar was immediately incorporated into my nightly routine (where I checked in with the TDY Navy Seabees, base security, and the Navy Command Post/Operations Center.) If a box was opened during the day, I would reallocate the remainder of the goods to the troops. Trust me when I say the gifts were more than appreciated by the recipients.

It was about that time I heard a rumor that the poor guys at the CG Boat Station located on Lake Pontchartrain were suffering. While they had a generator to supply electricity to their facilities, it wasn't a big enough generator to power their equipment plus their central air conditioning system. Thus, they were living and working in the heat. And in August its HOT and HUMID in New Orleans. Not a good situation.

A couple days after discovering my jackpot, I was doing routine running around when I spied a pallet of window air conditioners, still in their boxes sitting in a corner of the (never to be named) hangar. I casually walked over and confirmed the electrical requirements needed for operation and searched out who was working the area. Even though saying that they had no idea why they were sent, since no one had power to run them and all they were doing was taking up place, he wouldn't even talk about letting me have one.

As fortune would have it, that night the opened box I found was full of the tall boxes of Slim Jim jerky. It didn't get any better than that. I quickly found out everybody wanted one. People were willing to trade just about anything in their possession for one.

The next day I was at the hangar that had the air conditioners bright and early. And it was a different person working. I explained my situation to her and asked if she would be willing to let me take one air conditioner off her hands. She immediately shut me down.

Bummed, I started to walk away and without thinking I pulled out what was left of the Slim Jim from my pocket for a bite. Out of nowhere, the nice young lady appeared at my side and asked sweetly where I got the Slim Jim? The 25-watt light bulb above my head came on!

To make a long story short, I walked away with one boxed air conditioner as she walked away with one 18-inch Slim Jim. After all, it was just taking up space and was generally in the way.

That night the air conditioner was on a truck that was part of an armed convoy traveling across town to the Boat Station. They would have at least one room to relax in that was not over heated.

And that, my friends, is what I consider my best horse trade - one brand new in the box full size window air conditioner for one 18-inch Slim Jim.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time! Have a happy and safe New Years!12/27 2200