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A brush up

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Cohen Young
  • Defense Media Activity
ANGELES CITY, SAPANG BATO, Philippines - --  More than 44 Airmen gathered at a school in the Philippines to paint two buildings as a token of good will on April 9 while also participating in Exercise Balikatan 2011.

Airmen from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam; Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea (ROK) and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH), Hawaii took time from their work schedule to give a few school buildings a facelift and a provide a smile to the students and teachers of Sapang Bato Elementary, Angeles City, Philippines.

The school faculty was thrilled to see the amount of support from so many Airmen.

"The impact is so important because it makes school more conducive to learning," said school principal, Mrs. Leonida K. Quinto.

There is only one school in Sapang Bato and there are 1,357 students that attend it in grades 1-6 and they were unaware that their school would be painted.

"The children are off from school right now, but will be here next week to receive their report cards and I'm sure they will be surprised," added Quinto.

The two buildings were painted green, which is the color that the Philippine Department of Education uses, according to Quinto.

Many of the Airmen were humbled and happy to be able to help give the school a facelift.

"Helping here gives me a little humility about myself," said Senior Airman Steven Chubb, a native of Columbus, Ohio and currently assigned to 51st Operations Support Squadron, Osan AB, ROK. "We're blessed in America, so anything that you can do here is definitely going to make you feel better about yourself at the end of the day."

Many of the Airmen thought that this was a worthwhile project because it's important to help out the community that you are working with in an exercise of this magnitude.

"Without the international relationships that we have where ever we go, we couldn't do exercise like Balikatan," said Senior Master Sgt. Lee Mill of the 673 Medical Group, Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. "If we're not willing to show the effort that not only are we going to come into your country and work with you, but we will also give to your community, opportunities like this could go away."

Some of the Airmen saw this as a great opportunity to help and were very happy with the end result.

"It was great to see everyone come together to help out and we really made a difference," said Longmont, Colo. Native, Capt. Kelly Nettleblad, an A-10 pilot with the 25th Fighter Squadron, Osan AB, ROK. "The school really looks different; we did a great job."

Balikatan is a regularly scheduled exercise focusing on interoperability of forces and training and assistance in humanitarian and civic assistance operations. The experience gained in Balikatan complements our security assistance program and will improve upon existing AFP counter-terrorism programs.

"It's second nature for me to help and I believe if you help others, something good will come back to you later," added Chubb.