Kadena children get deployment experience

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Anna Fitzhorn
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan (AFPN) --  With a mobility bag slung heavily over one shoulder, the petite “Tech. Sgt.” Natasha Dumpert stands in a deployment line waiting for her immunizations before setting off for a deployment to Iraq.

Oh, by the way, Natasha is 8-years-old and her immunizations are jellybeans.

Natasha, along with more than 320 other Kadena children and adults, participated in a mock deployment March 12 as part of Operation Kids Understanding Deployment Operations.

Tech. Sgt. Michael Stines, the Operation KUDOS coordinator, said the goal of the program is to help children better understand what their parents have to do when they deploy.

“We put this program together because we know children, and even many spouses, have no idea what their parent or spouse goes through when they deploy,” Sergeant Stines said. “And since servicemembers are deploying for longer periods of time, hopefully, this will help them to better deal with the reality of ... deployment.”

To make the mock deployment seem as real as possible, officials, with the help of Airmen in various squadrons on base, put together an inprocessing tent, a processing line and the actual deployment location “Shogun Air Base, Iraq” in one of the base’s maintenance hangars where there were aircraft on display.

“We even had over 100 enthusiastic volunteers from various units on base,” Sergeant Stines said.

The operation started off at the softball field, where children were cycled through an inprocessing line. Each child received an identification card, Operation KUDOS dog tags and a chance to get his or her face decorated with camouflage paint.

Tech. Sgt. Robert Hastings, with the 353rd Special Operations Group, said he really enjoyed volunteering to help paint the children’s faces for the event.

“It was great watching the kids get a thrill out of running around looking like Rambo,” he said.

Following the initial check-in, the children were driven to a building where Col. Brent Baker, 18th Mission Support Group commander, asked them to name their favorite heroes.

After shouts of “Spider-man!” and names of famous athletes, Colonel Baker said that the real heroes are the people who defend our freedom.

“You live with these heroes,” he said. “They’re called your parents.”

The children sat through several other deployment briefings before going through the processing line. Each child that filed through the line received a mobility bag, aka laundry bag, an Operation KUDOS T-shirt, a calling card from the family support center, cookies and a writing kit from the base chaplain, and “malaria” medication that looked a lot like jellybeans.

Alyssa Dunteman, 12, daughter of Master Sgt. Joseph Dunteman of the 18th Aerospace Medicine Squadron, said she thought it was really interesting to see how complicated the whole process was.

“There is so much to do before getting deployed, and I can see how complicated it can get trying to make sure you have everything you need,” she said.

With mobility bags filled with deployment goodies in hand, the children were then driven to their final deployment location.

The setup included a defensive fighting position entry control point where children had to practice using the predesignated sign and countersign to get into “the base.” The children were then able to see deployment living quarters inside a tent with cots.

The living quarters gave the children an idea where their parents actually had to stay, said Tech. Sgt. Eric Dumpert, Operation KUDOS committee member assigned to the 18th Civil Engineer Squadron.

“I heard many of the kids say how uncomfortable the cots were and (ask) why they didn’t get more privacy,” he said.

The children also got to sit in an ambulance, a 33rd Rescue Squadron HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter, a Humvee, a cargo loader vehicle, a fuel truck and a fire department truck. They sampled a variety of hot and cold packaged meals, handled snakes brought by entomology Airmen, and looked at a variety of security forces weapons.

“A majority of the kids have seen them at the gate, but security forces did a great job at describing the weapons to the kids and stressing weapons safety awareness,” Sergeant Dumpert said.

The 18th Civil Engineer Squadron explosive ordnance disposal Airmen showed the children a range of high-tech equipment such as a robot and a 72-pound bomb suit, which was arguably the funniest thing at the event, Sergeant Dumpert said.

Once the deployment was complete, the children were driven back to the softball field for a big welcome home celebration.

“I think this was a really great idea,” said Robyn Parks, wife of Tech. Sgt. Virgil Parks of the 733rd Air Mobility Squadron. “I thought it was important to show my daughter what her dad has to do when he deploys.”