About a month ago, I left Virginia on a 120 day rotation in my AF reserve capacity. I'm in Honduras working at Soto Cano Air Base (SCAB). SCAB was established in the 1980s to promote democracy and to help with natural disasters. As bases in central America closed, SCAB remained open. (It has a runway capable of accomodating C5s among other assets.) Today, the missions for SCAB include humanitarian assistance, medical relief, building partnerships, and counter drug.
I'm working in current operations. That means that I am one of 3 people who form the information node on the events for the upcoming 30 days (including today... so I get all the "today" crisis). I get to see a lot of information. It's my first time working in operations, and I'm learning a ton! I'm getting exposed to the military (Army) planning process as well as the missions in central America. I'm also getting to practice my Spanish!
I got here on 9 Jan, started working on 11 January. Of course the earthquake hit Haiti on 12 Jan, so things have been very busy! Our area of focus includes latin America, and it does not include the carribean islands, but we are relativley close. We ended up deploying a medical team (23 people who can provide surgical services) on 17 Jan. They are doing phenomenal work... they've treated more than 1,500 in 11 days. (They've been supplemented with medical teams from other organizations, including other countries.) I was part of the planning efforts and now am part of the tracking efforts related to this team.
This blog is my way of keeping track of what I'm up to... and my way of learning how to do the blog thing! :)
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Just got back up to speed with your blog, and I LOVE it! great to read about all of the neat stuff you are seeing and doing. Thanks for posting the pictures as well, nice to see what your life is like there. Your hooch looks kind of like what I imagined Dad's to have looked like, only his would not have had the kitchen. Looks like a nicer place than some of my college dorms! Thanks again for doing this, it is a great way to learn for those of us not doing things quite as exciting.
ReplyDeleteLove you big sis!
James