Airmen extend knowledge and manpower to island of Palau

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Orville F. Desjarlais Jr.
  • Air Force Print News
For only the second time since the mid-1970s, the civic action team program in Palau is composed entirely of Airmen from around the world.

Thirteen Airmen are living and working on the island made famous a year and a half ago on the reality television series “Survivor.”

But the Airmen aren’t here for a television show; they’re here for humanitarian reasons -- to help a nation with its basic infrastructure development and provide a favorable U.S. military presence.

While resort hotels are popping up everywhere, the rest of the island remains relatively poor.

“The ministry of education doesn’t have a lot of money, but they have a lot of schools to maintain,” said Capt. Kristen Bakotic, the officer in charge of the team. “What we do is provide the manpower. If they pay for the materials, we’ll built it for them for free.

“One of the main reasons we’re here is to help maintain a basic infrastructure here,” she said. “In doing that, we also extend a positive U.S. image. In that regard, we have a tremendous impact.”

The United States has funded many projects here, including a road that loops around Babledaob. Officials hope the islanders will move away from the congestion building up on the other smaller islands and move here. Taiwan and Japan have also donated money for bridges and buildings.

The civic action team works on a smaller scale, taking on projects that otherwise would not get completed if not for their expertise. Although most of the team members are in civil engineering, a physician assistant provides services under the medical civic action program.

“This government really appreciates us,” Captain Bakotic said. “They realize they still need help. They need a good foundation in order to bring in more foreign money.”

The first all-Air Force CAT team here in 2004 started building an emergency search and rescue sub-station for Babledaob, the largest of all the islands that compose Palau. The state was in dire need of the sub-station because it would take rescuers about 30 minutes to get the injured to a hospital.

“The importance of that project was huge,” she said. “The first CAT team started it and we finished it.”

The sub-station houses a fire truck, ambulance and jail. Smaller projects include building a recreational pavilion for the Palau Community College and a summer house for patients in a mental ward.

One project included building a road that led to a cemetery. Previously, vehicles couldn’t make it all the way to the cemetery because the road was so bad. Mourners had to stop and carry the casket the rest of the way.

Their help extends beyond the sandy shores of Palau. The team has a boat it uses for projects on other nearby islands, like Anguar, located about 70 miles south of here.

It took them a week to tile 1,600 square feet of the Anguar Elementary School. Since students must walk between buildings to get to class, and the average rainfall is between 100 to 150 inches each year, the team also built covered walkways so the students wouldn’t get wet between classes. They also improved the island’s typhoon center by improving their aging water pipes and increasing water pressure. There are only 160 residents on that island.

“The projects we do are normally improving their quality of life,” said Staff Sgt. Kevin Babers, a structural journeyman. He is three months into this six-month assignment and has loved every minute of it.

“We all agreed when we first got here that we want to leave the camp and this island better than when we arrived,” Sergeant Babers said.

Master Sgt. Wesley Matthews, the NCO in charge of all projects, volunteered to join the team because of his love for humanitarian missions. His last humanitarian mission was building a clinic and school in Guatemala in 1994.

“(Humanitarian missions) are the best thing about the Air Force, but we don’t get a chance to do it that much, what with desert deployments and supporting the war on terrorism,” Sergeant Matthews said.

In 1969, the government of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands requested the assistance of civic action teams. The first seven teams deployed in 1969 were Navy Seabee teams. In 1970, the Army and Air Force started providing teams, replacing the Navy teams. In the mid-1970s, the CAT program was temporarily cancelled. It resumed again in 1977, but the Air Force didn’t provide a team until 2004.

“Seeing us down there makes a huge difference,” Captain Bakotic said. “We try to include the community in all of our projects.”

One such future project will do just that. The team is scheduled to build a bathroom in a preschool that currently doesn’t have one. But the team isn’t going to do it alone.

“We’re asking all the parents of that school to pitch in and help,” she said. “That makes it a true community project.”