Then this happened.”Herbert said that as he watched the reports of devastation emerging from western North Carolina, he knew he had to act. Shortly after landing in Concord, Herbert was dispatched on his first Operation Airdrop mission to another hard-hit area, Gatlinburg, Tennessee. "Then I started seeing some of the pictures of the devastation in western North Carolina," he said. Holt said volunteer pilots are not allowed to fly missions at night for safety reasons. "Today what was needed was medical supplies, and we had to scramble when we realized we were short," said Lee, 47, of Cornelius, North Carolina.

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