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Team Shaw hosts Operation Take Flight

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Daniel Blackwell
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  Team Shaw held Operation Take Flight, a child oriented deployment-simulation event, here Sept. 26.

Approximately 254 children and family members participated in the event.

"This event is an educational and outreach initiative for Team Shaw and the Airman and Family Readiness Center," said Tech. Sgt. Evan Singleton, 20th Force Support Squadron, A&FRC NCO in charge. "It serves to decrease the negative stressors kids experience as their parent(s) get ready to deploy."

The program is designed to eliminate fear of the unknown and give them a positive experience to associate with deployments.

"The event also gives the Airmen and Family Readiness Center the opportunity to educate our military families on deployment related services that we offer," Singleton explained.

During the event, each child received an age-appropriate mobility bag filled with various resources and gifts as they visited each station in the deployment processing center.

"Nothing sets the stage for success better than putting valuable resources directly into the hands of those who need it most," Singleton said.

The children's "deployment" started at the DPC, where they were able to look at all the gear that Airmen must deploy with (gas masks, chemical gear, etc.)

After this, they received a "mobility bag" that they processed the line with. They visited various agencies along the way, receiving stickers and encouraging words from the chapel station, a power of attorney from the legal station, flight stickers from the passenger manifest station, commemorative dog-tags from the A&FRC station, 200 toy dollars from finance and also had their height and weight taken at the medical group station.

The children then sat in a "pre-deployment briefing" where they were told to be safe and have fun as they prepared to deploy to Shawzakistan, a prepared location on base where many interactive activities waited for the children.

Afterwards, they rode on a bus together to their "deployed location" where there were many stations and activities set up.

Security forces displayed multiple Humvee vehicles that the children were allowed to look inside of. Under the supervision of trained security forces personnel, children were also allowed to hold the weapons.

The 20th Civil Engineer Squadron's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Flight was present as well and showed the children their bomb defusing robot.

Fire trucks and an ambulance were also on display to give the children a hands-on experience with the equipment.

Lastly, security forces put on an exhibition for the children with a military working dog from their unit. They showed them the various commands the dog could execute and how they trained the dog.

After this, they opened the floor for questions and let the children ask any questions they had about their job or the military.

"The excitement from the kids was immeasurable," Singleton said. "I saw kids look amazed when they processed through the deployment line and received deployment memorabilia."

"Just to see the excitement on the children's faces makes it worth it," said John F. Kennedy, 20th Force Support Squadron school liaison. "It's good to know that we're teaching them things that will stick with them for a long time."