BY MAUREEN N. MARATITA
Journal Staff
The Christmas Drop is a famous annual event, where personnel aboard a C-130J Super Hercules execute low altitude drops that send welcome gifts down to the remote islands of the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau.
The number of participants in the Christmas Drop has grown in recent years.
Last year the 374th Airlift Wing from Yokota Air Base, Japan, the 36th Wing at Andersen Air Force Base, the 515th Air Mobility Operations Wing at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, and the Republic of Korea Air Force all participated in the Christmas Drop. The Royal Australian Air Force and the Philippine Air Force also provided ground support.
According to the Public Affairs Office at Andersen, this year in December 235 boxes are planned for the drop, with about 50,000 of goods to be dropped.
But this year the Christmas Drop will welcome a Son of Guam who will bring with him gifts from the personnel and families of the 377th Air Base Wing at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico - more than 6,700 miles away.
The Christmas Drop is well supported in Guam, but for the first time, Kirtland is participating in the event held annually since 1952.
In an effort spearhead by Senior Airman Kiersten Fausto, training manager of the 377th Security Forces Group unit – who is from Guam, members from various units around Kirtland donated hundreds of items to contribute to the thousands of donations gathered. “I did not expect the boxes to be so full, “Fausto said. He drove around the base to collect the donation boxes himself. “I’m just blown away at Kirtland’s willingness to contribute to something so important to me and to the people of Guam.”
Many of the donations include canned foods, first aid kits, hygiene products, batteries, tools, books, school supplies, fishing gear, and more, according to the release sent to the Journal from Kirtland’s Public Affairs Office.
“It’s not just about me being from Guam,” Fausto said. “It’s the fact that I am able to bring a little bit of my new home back to where I grew up. Coming together and collecting all these items is just amazing and it truly embodies the Air Force’s core values.”
The 52,000-acre Kirtland base, which is home to the Air Force Materiel Command's Nuclear Weapons Center, understands the value of goods and relationships to the business community.
It’s supported by female, minority, HUBzone and veteran owned small businesses to the tune of $358 million. Kirtland has 1,302 privatized housing units and 11 restaurants on-base, according to its 2022 Economic Impact Statement.
Fausto is happy to be heading back to the island. In the release from Kirtland, he said, “The island, the people, it’s just… home. It’s where my heart is.” mbj