From Associated Press:

McCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. —
Two C-17 cargo planes from McChord Air Force Base are on their way to assist in Haiti relief efforts.

The planes left Sunday morning, one for Langley Air Force Base in Virginia and the other to Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina. They'll pick up specialized teams and relief supplies to bring to Haiti, which was devastated by a magnitude-7 earthquake Tuesday.

Two other C-17s and four aircrews remain on alert at McChord for additional humanitarian relief missions.

From Seattle PI:

Two massive cargo planes based at Pierce County's McChord Air Force base joined the Haiti relief effort Sunday. The planes are bringing specialized equipment and an elite rescue team to the island, and will likely return to the U.S. with refugees.

One flew early Sunday morning to Langley Air Force Base in Virginia and the other one went to Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina.

The cargo on the Langley flight: A specialized truck that makes it easier to offload supplies from planes and onto waiting delivery trucks. The special truck will help speed the process of getting supplies into the hands of the people who need them. In the past few days there have been tremendous problems distributing the supplies arriving in Haiti.

For a crew used to moving soldiers to and from war zones, being a part of the Haiti relief effort offered a welcome change.

"I think it's an honor" to help with the relief effort, said First Lt. Joseph Hurley of the 62nd Airlift Wing as the C-17 headed east through the night. "It's not everyday you get to help somebody in need."

Disaster response missions are nothing new to the McChord air wings, the 62nd Air Wing and the Air Force Reserve's 446th Air Wing.

The McChord crews recently took part in relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Gustav and the 2009 tsunami that struck American Samoa. Still, most service members interviewed Sunday said they'd been deployed as part of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq during those efforts and did not participate.

With port access to the Haitian capital cut off and overland routes through the Caribbean island of Hispanola problematic, supply by air remains the key to delivering food, water and other essentials to the earthquake-devastated capitol city.