Holiday greetings team visits Gwangju

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Oshawn Jefferson
  • 3rd Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
GWANGJU AIR BASE, South Korea (AFPN) --  A lot of “I love you” and well wishes were spoken here Oct. 12 when 126 Airmen and Soldiers sent their holiday greetings home.

An Army and Air Force Hometown News Service holiday greetings team stopped here as part of a worldwide tour to film messages from servicemembers to air on their hometown television stations during the holiday season.

“This was a great opportunity to be able to tell my family hello and tell them how much I will miss them during the holiday season,” said 1st Lt. Frankie Locust, 3rd Air Expeditionary Communications Flight commander. “This is my sixth year in the Air Force, but this is the first Christmas I’ll miss because of a deployment. So these greetings were definitely a blessing.”

The three-person team of Army Sgt. 1st Class Alan Rimar, Tech. Sgt. Gerard Banayad and Staff Sgt. Cheryl Cho hit the ground running. They filmed 126 greetings in three-and-a-half hours.

“We were very pleased with the enthusiasm of the people here,” Sergeant Cho said. “The people here did an outstanding job at filming their greets. It was a good day.”

While most people filmed their greeting alone, one married couple here got the chance to do two greetings together.

“It was a cool thing to do, our families get to see us together, and they can see we are safe, happy and enjoying the holidays with each other,” said Army Capt. Michael Gentile, from Fort Bliss, Texas.

“Family is important to us, and we really miss them around the holiday season,” said his wife, Army 1st Lt. Alicia Davis-Gentile. “Opportunities to send a greeting home is almost like us being there during the holidays.”

The holiday greetings team here is one of four that is visiting about 70 locations in 45 days.

"The primary goal of holiday greetings is to help boost the morale for those away from home during the holidays," said Tom Taylor, hometown news service broadcast division chief. "One of our priorities is to cover as many deployed locations throughout the world as possible.”

For one Airman, just the thought of his family getting to see him deployed and serving his country is outstanding.

“I’ve missed the holidays three times, and this is the first time I’ve been able to do this,” said Staff Sgt. Jose Verbeck, 3rd Air Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron crew chief. “My son will be ecstatic when he sees it, and I’m glad I got the opportunity.”