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For thousands of people across dozens of islands in the Pacific, Santa drives a US military C-130 Super Hercules in 'Operation Christmas Drop'
For thousands of people across dozens of islands in the Pacific, Santa drives a US military C-130 Super Hercules in 'Operation Christmas Drop'
Ryan PickrellDec 17, 2018, 19:32 IST
Lt. Col. Barry A. King, 374th Operations Group deputy commander, left, and 1st. Lt. Emery Gumapas, 36th Airlift Squadron pilot, right, make adjustments aboard Santa 21 on its way to airdrop supplies to the island of Nama, Federated States of Micronesia during Operation Christmas Drop 2018, Dec. 10, 2018.U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Matthew Gilmore
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The US military has been delivering much-needed supplies to islands in the Pacific every year around the Christmas holidays for almost seven decades.
Operation Christmas Drop (OCD) is the Department of Defense's longest-running humanitarian airlift operation.
Supplies are delivered to 56 islands across the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, Federated States of Micronesia, and Republic of Palau.
The most recent drop occurred just last week.
For people living on remote islands across the Pacific, Christmas is the sound of C-130s roaring overhead as boxes of food, clothing, toys, and more parachuted from the holds drop down from the sky.
Operation Christmas Drop, which began during the holiday season in 1952 as a spur-of-the-moment decision by a B-29 Superfortress crew, is the Department of Defense's longest-running humanitarian airlift operation.
Now in its 67th year, the OCD mission is supported by the US Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard, as well as members of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and Royal Australian Air Force. It serves over 50 remote islands in the Pacific.
The first drop all those years ago began with a B-29 crew dropping supplies to waving locals on Kapingamarangi island. The program now helps tens of thousands of people living on 56 islands across an area of 1.8 million square nautical miles annually.
US military C-130J Super Hercules aircrews conduct low-cost, low-altitude drops, with parachuted packages touching down on land or at sea, the latter sometimes being necessary to avoid unintended damage to the environment or property.
"My father experienced this drop when he was a little kid back in '77, I believe, and in that drop, he got his first pair of shoes," airman Brandon Phillip recently said. "I get to give back to my dad's island while serving my country. It just makes it all special."
The OCD supply drop came a little over a month after the Marianas were hammered by the 180 mph winds of Super Typhoon Yutu, the worst storm to hit any part of the US since 1935.
"This is what Christmas is for," Bruce Best, who has been part of the OCD mission for four decades, told Stars and Stripes. "When they hear the rumble of the plane engines, that’s Christmas."
