By Anita Weier, September 13, 2001

Excited, proud to help and a little bit nervous, 15 Red Cross nurses and blood collection specialists flew from the Dane County Regional Airport this morning to help out in Washington, D.C.  Karen Lemke, a licensed practical nurse who is the "pit boss" of the operation, said the Red Cross workers were called Wednesday and asked whether they would volunteer.   Few hesitated.

"I am excited and concerned," said Kate Bauer, 38, a collection technician from Fond du Lac. "This whole tragedy is just starting to hit me now. I have six children and they are concerned for me. But it is an exciting opportunity."   A hijacked airplane crashed into the Pentagon Tuesday, shortly after two other hijacked planes smashed into the World Trade Center in New York.

Ann O'Donnell, a licensed practical nurse from Madison who previously has traveled to Wisconsin sites to help out in emergencies, said the group will be doing blood collection.

"I feel a little apprehensive, and excited," O'Donnell said.  "We are told it will be long days. When I was first asked, I said, 'Uh-uh-uh ... I'll go.' Then I called my husband and he said, 'What?!' I just feel uncertain. I don't know how it will be."

Kristie Koberstein, a 26-year-old registered nurse from Janesville, said she did not hesitate at all when she got the call Wednesday night.

"It's the chance of a lifetime," she said. "I've never been east. I haven't been in a plane since I was 10. I do think this is important. It's a good feeling."

Her boyfriend, Dennis Letcher of Janesville, was at the Wisconsin Aviation Terminal to send her off.

"I'm jealous," said Letcher, who just earned his paramedic license and has been an EMT for three years.  Allie Schraufnagel of Verona, 45, said, "I'm just happy to be a part of it and do what I can do in this small way."

The BadgerHawkeye Region Red Cross team is being transported without cost by Airlifeline, a volunteer group of pilots, said Alex Wattles, the pilot of one of three small aircraft taking the group to Washington this morning. "We are disaster relief. We do this a lot," said Wattles, who is from Pound Ridge, N.Y.