Guam Guardsmen leave mark in Dili

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Cohen A. Young
  • Defense Media Activity-Hawaii
DILI, Timor Leste --  An 11-member team from the 254th REDHORSE Squadron at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, recently provided much-needed civil engineering assistance to an under-served area here as part of Operation Pacific Angel 2009.

The Guam Air National Guard team left a memento as part of their work, in the form of a unit coin embedded in a walkway they built at the National Hospital here. They also re-wired some of the electrical work in the hospital and a neighboring clinic, as well as installed new locks and benches at the clinic.

Pacific Angel is a Pacific Air Forces humanitarian and civic assistance program conducted in the Asia-Pacific region and led by 13th Air Force at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. U.S. personnel provided medical, dental and engineering assistance programs July 16-20 to areas of Timor Leste in conjunction with local authorities.

"This experience has been very humbling, coming from a society where everything is pretty much handed to us," said Staff Sgt. Kesha Rosario, a knowledge operations management specialist with the 254th. "Coming to Timor Leste and seeing what they have here really opens your eyes to other countries and how much of a focus is needed on those places."

Sergeant Rosario said she had to leave the comfort zone of her office and pitch in with the many physical tasks required during the operation.

"This is definitely different than the office job," Sergeant Rosario said. "Being in REDHORSE is definitely a field job. We learned about painting, how to pour concrete, how to make sure everything is straight, [and how to] install benches - stuff that we don't do in our day-to-day job. It was a good experience."

The REDHORSE team worked with the U.S. Navy's Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 40 and the Royal New Zealand Army's 2nd Regiment to complete electrical work and the sidewalk at the hospital.

"It's been really interesting working with these guys [Americans]," said David Lamond, an engineer with the 2nd Regiment and a native of Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. "Coming from a whole lot of different backgrounds and coming together as a team has been good. Everyone came to work and get the job done."

REDHORSE is an acronym for Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operation Repair Squadron Engineers, and the 254th is in the process of converting to a full REDHORSE squadron.

At the conclusion of the joint and combined project, the Guardsmen, Seabees and Kiwis left their unit names in the concrete as it dried to illustrate they were there to help the community.

"We came out here to Timor Leste and devoted time for a good cause," said Sergeant Rosario.