Jungle Warriors give back to the Oahu community

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Kerry Jackson
  • 13th Air Force Public Affairs
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR HICKAM, Hawaii --  Continuing their efforts to serve and give back to the Oahu community, more than 150 13th Air Force "Jungle Warriors" volunteered in the Oahu community during Jungle Day Aug. 13.

For 13th Air Force, Jungle Day is about community, camaraderie and good old fashioned competition. This year, the team volunteered at Sand Island Beach, where they spent time cleaning the beach and re-painting some of the park's picnic benches and buildings.

Jungle Warriors also donated 65 boxes of food to the Hawaii Food Bank, which serves 250 charitable agencies representing 289 feeding programs across Oahu.

"My hometown of Spokane, Washington, had 183,000 people living there when I was growing up, and there are 183,500 people who are served by the Hawaii Food Bank here in Oahu - so that's a lot of folks," said Col. Wade Thomas, Commander of the 613th Air and Space Operations Center here. "It includes 11 thousand senior citizens, and more than 50 thousand children who might not miss every meal, but may not know where the next meal is coming from."

A representative from the Hawaii Food Bank thanked the 13th AF Jungle Warriors for their donations.

"The Hawaii Food Bank is truly appreciative of everything that [the Air Force] donated here today," said Kim Bartenstein. "What the Air Force is doing here today to help our community and build a better community is exactly what we try to do at the food bank everyday , so we are truly appreciative and we send our Mahalo to everyone."

The 13th Air Force's Jungle Warriors also spent the day competing in sports, games and other morale-building activities including combat golf, three-on-three basketball, tug-of-war, trivia games, scavenger hunts, and bowling.

"Jungle Day is always fun and something to look forward to for everyone," said Tech. Sgt. Gary Miles , the 13th Air Force spectrum manager. "It gives us the chance to not only build camaraderie and morale that makes our unit a success, but it gives us an enormous opportunity to give back to the community."

Thirteenth Air Force has observed Jungle Day in Hawaii since 2007, a tradition that originated when the organization was assigned to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, in 1991. During previous Jungle Days, 13th Air Force members volunteered in homeless shelters and elementary schools and cleaned up area parks.

Thirteenth Air Force is responsible for command, control and execution of air, space, and information operations capabilities across the full range of military operations in the U.S. Pacific Command area of responsibility, excluding the Korea theater of operations.