U.S. Army Maj. Elizabeth Fish is a double vet. She is a veterinarian who is also a seven-year veteran of the Army Reserve, including a deployment to Afghanistan, where she was wounded by an improvised explosive device. She is presently assigned to the 353rd Civil Affairs Command, which is an Army unit principally comprised of senior Soldiers and officers with particular expertise in a broad range of skills in civil-military matters.
The particular expertise Fish brings to the Army is, of course, animal care. She graduated from Cornell School of Veterinarian Medicine in 2008 and has established a successful equine-focused veterinarian practice with offices in New York as well as Florida. She resides on a farm in Pawling, New York with four horses (one of them a miniature).
On Oct. 5, 2024, Fish volunteered her personal farm supplies, such as hay, grain and medical material, to assist the people of North Carolina, who were still struggling with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. In total, she amassed four tons of supplies to donate.
“I was glued to social media and watching the videos these people were posting from North Carolina,” said Fish. “They were pleading for help. A lot of large animals did not survive the hurricane, but those that did were in random places being cared for by strangers.”
The aspect of Fish’s character that drove her to service in the U.S. Army, then compelled her to answer those pleas from North Carolina.
“What pushed me over the edge was when people started euthanizing animals to prevent them from starving,” said Fish.
To her hayloft she went to find what food could be spared.
“I will find a way to replace what I have,” explained Fish.
But loading 8,000 pounds of hay and grain into a truck is a grueling undertaking; even for a U.S. Army soldier. So Fish called upon the soldiers from her Army Reserve unit, which is the 411th Civil Affairs Battalion based in Danbury, Connecticut. Less than an hour from when she sent the group text, a team of non-commissioned officers responded. They were ready.
Sgt. 1st Class Angel Vargas, Staff Sgt. Nicolas Cadenas-Rada, and Sgt. Javier Gonzalez were the first to arrive. They neither received nor expected any pay. They were put to work tossing haybales from the hayloft to the ground and then stowing them in Fish’s horse trailer.
“Maj. Fish asked for help,” said Vargas. “She said it would help people down south.”
That was enough to convince Vargas to volunteer. He has been deliberate and intentional with his volunteering lately, an effort not lost on the local newspaper: https://www.newtownbee.com/04222024/donations-for-newtown-lions-stuff-a-truck-food-drive-help-fight-hunger/
When Cardenas-Rada arrived, he brought with him reinforcements – his fiancé, Katrina Kristoferson. Being a U.S. Army Soldier has never been an isolated undertaking. As Fish found, when a Soldier is in need of assistance, a team of volunteers will mobilize. As Cardenas-Rada demonstrated, family members are part of that team too.
Sgt. 1st Class John Ramirez arrived a bit later. He had a two-plus hour drive. He also has three children for whom he had to find supervision.
“I will find the time,” said Ramirez. “I will get coverage for my kids. I will get there.”
By the time Ramirez arrived, the enterprising team of soldiers (and fiancé) had cleared the hayloft. Ramirez was tasked with scrubbing feeding and veterinarian medical equipment from Fish’s own office and then loading it into the truck.
None of the sergeants had any experience with farm work, but that was no deterrent to accomplishing the mission. As trained civil affairs soldiers, they are accustomed to encountering novel situations and adapting to address them. Civil affairs Soldiers, such as those of the 411th Battalion and its parent unit, the 353rd Civil Affairs Command, specialize in managing complex civil-military scenarios. These could include assisting friendly countries to transform their civilian transportation infrastructure to accommodate large-scale movement of military equipment in preparation for war or administering schools in war-ravaged territories. Packing food and medical supplies into a truck was not much of a challenge.
Getting that truck to the hurricane victims in North Carolina was a bit more problematic.
“The logistics of getting a truck to drive it all the way to North Carolina was the hardest part,” said Fish.
She was able to call upon her partners and allies in the animal-care community to assist. In particular, the manager of Rosemary Farm Sanctuary in South Kortright, New York, had coordinated with a local independent trucker to send donations of her own to North Carolina. Fish was able to co-mingle her 8,000 pounds of supplies with those of Rosemary Farm Sanctuary and they were all successfully delivered to Tryon International Equestrian Center in Mill Spring, North Carolina and Red Bull Run in Columbus, North Carolina.
“It was therapeutic,” said Vargas. “Plus, I got to see horses.”
“I wanted to keep their animals alive,” said Fish. “I was hoping to do something to preserve some part of their family.”
“If you have the means to help, you have no excuse not to help,” said Ramirez. “It is part of our Army values.”
