Author: DuctapeFatwa

They Passed the Babies Forward

National Guard soldiers stood between the surging mob and the buses there to evacuate the desperate out of the abject misery of New Orleans.
The troops were processing some 25,000 refugees spilling out of the squalor of the Louisiana Superdome on Sept. 2, working to keep families intact as they worked their way up the line of thousands.

“For God’s sake, please don’t separate yourself from your children,” screamed Air Force Capt. John Pollard of the Texas Air Guard’s 149th Security Squadron into a microphone. Pollard screamed numerous times. “Keep your families together. You need one another.”

But his amplified voice only reached a few rows into the mob.

As desperation and uncertainty grew, however, parents who wanted to ensure survival for their infant children starting passing them forward. The crowd moved them ahead, hand over hand, and presented them to the Guard members at the metal barricades separating them from the buses.

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