MARIETTA - Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Dave Violette said the Port-au-Prince, Haiti, airport was a "beehive of activity" when he and a crew based at Dobbins Air Reserve Base landed in the crippled city to unload 2,200 pounds of supplies Monday night.

After the drop-off, the crew transported a journalists and a congressman from Haiti to San Juan, Puerto Rico, before safely returning to Marietta on Thursday afternoon.

"Flying in, we could see ground fires going on throughout Port-au-Prince," said Violette, 47, of Snellville, who served as a loadmaster on the mission. "Of course, when we got off the plane you could smell smoke from all those fires that were down there. But the flight line itself was just full of reporters and foreigners down there. We saw planes that were from all over the world bringing in stuff. It was quite a beehive of activity."

The seven-member 94th Airlift Wing based at Dobbins departed Marietta in a C-130 airplane on Sunday for the mission to Haiti. They carried a Dobbins-based medical team to Florida. Then they picked up a joint military communications unit of 16 people from MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., and flew them to Port-au-Prince.

There was only one working runway in Port-au-Prince for the Dobbins crew to land at. Most of the planes there were uploading evacuees, Violette said. Besides their own equipment, the communications unit took food, water, fuel and other supplies to earthquake victims.

They all landed in Port-au-Prince on Monday after dark. They were in the capital city for less than hour, the crew reported.

"It was the lack of what you couldn't see," said Air Force Maj. Jeff Hentz, 40, of Marietta, one of two pilots of the C-130. "Port-au-Prince being a decent size city normally has lots of lights. There were very, very few lights. You could tell the whole city was either on emergency generators or maybe just a couple of generators out there. It was just a lack of lights overall that was kind of shocking."

Another C-130 from Dobbins also flew down to Haiti about a week ago, but has not returned from its mission.

The efforts are part of a larger plan by the U.S. military to aide the Caribbean nation, which was shattered by a massive earthquake on Jan. 12.

"It is truly joint in nature," said Air Force Lt. Col. James Wilson. "It's not just the Air Force that is involved in this, all branches of the service are. Everyone is stepping up to volunteer time, availability and resources to help the people of Haiti."

Wilson said he was uncertain if any more crews will be flying out of Dobbins to Haiti.

"I can tell you if there is a requirement and we have the resources here at Dobbins to assist, we will do that," he said.

Members of the crew had been going about their daily jobs of training C-130 pilots when they received the call to go to Haiti. They said they were glad to play a part in the relief effort.

"We were thrilled just at the chance to help," Hentz said. "It was one of those things that we said were our way in being able to help aide in this. And it was very worthwhile."

94th Airlift Wing spokesman Jim Weslowski said the base has been bombarded with calls from churches, schools and other organizations wanting to send food and supplies Dobbins, to be flown to Haiti. However, he said it is not equipped to handle such a task. Weslowski said he encourages people to donate money to the American Red Cross.