Instead of attending her first week of classes, Casey Batten was helping people in Port Aransas impacted by Hurricane Harvey, doing her duty as a Senior Airman in the National Guard.
Normally, her responsibilities include two weeks of training in the summer and one
weekend of drill every month at her base in Fort Worth. It was during one of these
weekends that she was approached about joining Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. The
storm hit harder than expected, so she had to rush back to Lubbock to pack up her
gear and report to base the following morning.